URL Shortener

Introduction

This is a simple URL shortener project, made for learning purposes.

It is similar to Bit.ly or TinyURL, and allows users to input a long URL and receive a shortened version of it. This makes sharing links easier and helps in tracking and managing URLs.

View the live application here 👈.

Features

• Shorten URLs: Convert long URLs into manageable short links.
• Easy to use: Simple interface for creating and managing URLs.
• PWA: Easily install the application on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Click here to see how

Technologies

• Backend: Go, Gin
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Frontend: Next.js, TypeScript, SCSS.modules

Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

Prerequisites

What things you need to install the software and how to install them:

For the server:

• Go: Download and install Go
  • Air: Install Air if you want to use live reload
• PostgreSQL: Download and install PostgreSQL

For the client:

• Node.js: Download and install Node.js
• npm: Download and install npm

Installing

A step by step series of examples that tell you how to get a development env running:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone github.com/nitzanpap/url-shortener

2. Change into the project directory:

   cd url-shortener

Server Setup

• Note: If you are using VS Code, you can use the Go extension to install the necessary tools and dependencies.

1. Change into the server directory:

   cd server

2. Create a .env file in the server directory:

   touch .env

   Make sure to populate the .env file according to the .env.example file.

3. Run the server via make:

   • For development, run with live reload:

     make run/live

   • Or build and run the server:

     1. Manually:

        make build && make run

     2. Via Docker:

        docker compose up

Client Setup

1. Change into the client directory:

   cd client

2. Create a .env.local file in the client directory:

   touch .env.local

   Make sure to populate the .env.local file according to the .env.example file.

3. Install the dependencies:

   npm install

4. Run the development server:

   • For development:

     npm run dev

   • For production:

     npm run build && npm start

Debugging

If you are using VS Code, you can use the launch.json configurations to debug the server and client code.

Deployment

I am deploying the server to render.com and the client to Vercel. You can deploy the server and client to any platform of your choice.