URL Shortener

This project is a URL shortener that generates random short IDs for provided URLs and facilitates user access to the original URL using the short ID. It also offers administrative features to track clicks and view statistics.

Features

• Uses shortid to generate random IDs for shortened URLs.
• Provides endpoints for URL shortening, redirection, and administrative functions.
• Tracks clicks and delivers statistics for each shortened URL.

Endpoints

• POST /url: Generates a shortened URL for a valid URL submitted in the request body.
• GET /:id: Redirects to the original URL using the provided short URL ID.
• GET /url/admin/:id: Returns the number of clicks for a specific shortened URL.
• GET /url/admin: Returns all shortened URLs along with their corresponding redirect URLs and total click counts.

Usage

1. Installation

Ensure you have Node.js and npm installed on your system.

• Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/ashesbloom/URL_Shortener.git

• Navigate to the project directory:

cd URL_Shortener

• Install dependencies:

npm install

express package:

npm i express

mongoose:

npm i mongoose

shortid package:

npm i shortid

2. Running the Server

npm start

This starts the server on the default port (usually 3000) but 8000 in this case.

3. Example Usage

Shorten a URL

• Send a POST request to /url with the valid URL in the request body:

{
  "url": "https://example.com/very-long-url-path"
}

• The response will contain the shortened URL:

{
  "shortUrl": "https://short.url/abc123"
}

Redirect

• Access the shortened URL (e.g., https://short.url/abc123) in your browser and get redirected to the original URL.

Admin Dashboard

• Access the admin dashboard at /url/admin to view all shortened URLs with their statistics (requires admin authorization).

Dependencies

• Node.js
• Express.js
• shortid
• Mongoose