Serverless URL Shortener

A Serverless URL Shortener service which allows you to deploy a URL Shortener in AWS using Serverless Framework

For the following example domain of mycomp.click to genenerate short urls i.e. https://mycomp.click/tpXckS

Supports click analytics visualisations and downloadable CSVs

Technology Stack

• Cloudfront
• DynamoDB
• Lambda
• Route53
• Cloudformation
• Serverless Framework
• Typescript
• NodeJS

Architecture

Deployment

There are two options for deployment:

Prerequisites

• An ACM SSL Ceritificate in us-east-1 for mycomp.click - the ARN for the cerificate should be set as the ${acmcertarn} variable

If you require a DNS record to be create for your Cloudfront Distribution

• A Route53 Hosted Zone ID set as the ${r53hostedzoneid} variable. e.g. Z2FDTNDATAQYW2

Without Route53 Record

npm install

serverless deploy --stage=${stage} --region=${region} --acmcertarn ${acmcertarn} --domainname ${domainname} --creatednsrecord "false"

The CloudFormation Stack outputs the CloudFront domain - direct your short Domain DNS record at this domain name

With Route53 Record

npm install

serverless deploy --stage=${stage} --region=${region} --acmcertarn ${acmcertarn} --domainname ${domainname} --r53hostedzoneid ${r53hostedzoneid} --creatednsrecord "true"

Usage

When the stack is deployed you will be provided an API key available in the API Gateway console called key-${stage}

Example CURL Request:

curl --location --request POST 'https://mycomp.click/api/shorten' \
--header 'x-api-key: ${apikey}' \
--header 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
--data-raw '{
  "longurl": "https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=serverless+computing"
}'

Response:

{
    "longurl": "https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=serverless+computing",
    "id": "WKp5Ow",
    "created": 1613425012,
    "expire": 1621114612,
    "shorturl": "https://mlabs.click/WKp5Ow"
}

The response includes the following:

longurl : the long url provided

id : the generated short unique id for your short url

created : epoch timestamp of creation date

expire : the expiry of this url (short url will become unavailable after this date / time)

shorturl : the short url generated

Note: The default url expiry is set to now + 3 months. To override the expiry for the url - include this into the request as an epoch timestamp.

Example CURL Request with custom expiry:

curl --location --request POST 'https://mycomp.click/api/shorten' \
--header 'x-api-key: ${apikey}' \
--header 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
--data-raw '{
  "longurl": "https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=serverless+computing",
  "expire": 1621114612
}'

This record will expire on Saturday, 15 May 2021 21:36:52

Note: Short urls will be cached by Cloudfront for 1 day which means your lambda function invoke / dynamodb get will be cached for a day.

Analytics

To view analytics for the usage of your short urls - The Cloudfront console offers a view of:

• Top URLs (Popular objects)
• Devices
• Browsers
• Operating Systems
• Locations

e.g.

Devices

Browsers

Operating Systems

Locations