A Node JS URL Shortener API

An API developed using Node JS, Express JS to shorten URLs with an option of expiration

Replicate

• Clone the repository

 git clone https://github.com/xosteve26/UrlShortener.git

• Install the necessary dependencies thorugh:

npm install

• Create a .env file in the root directory.
• Within the .env file create a variable called MONGO_URI and paste in your MONGO DB Atlas connection string.
• Run the npm run start command
• Open up your browser to access the server thorugh http://localhost:5000.

Usage

• The API can be directly accessed through url where the API has been deployed https://nesrt.herokuapp.com/
• The API can be made use of through an API verification tool such as POSTMAN, INSOMNIA etc

Routes

Route to shrink url:

@route: /api/url/shrink
@method: POST
@desc: To shrink the url

Fields in the request body:

• "longUrl" - The url that needs to br shrunk [Value Data type: String] [Required]
• "expiration" - The number of seconds the url needs to live [Value Data type: Integer] [Optional]

Sample Request Body:

    With Url expiration:
        {
            "longUrl":"https://excalidraw.com/",
            "expiration":10
        }
    Without Url expiration:
        {
            "longUrl":"https://excalidraw.com/",
        }

Sample Response:

    With url expiration:
        {
            "urlCode": "JaOlA0evY",
            "longUrl": "https://excalidraw.com/",
            "shortUrl": "https://nesrt.herokuapp.com/JaOlA0evY",
            "createdAt": "2022-05-13T06:19:32.311Z",
            "expireAt": "2022-05-13T06:19:42.311Z",
            "_id": "627df874e54b1ed1c075f828",
            "__v": 0
        }

    Without url expiration:
        {
            "urlCode": "9fqtZ5QhA",
            "longUrl": "https://google.com",
            "shortUrl": "https://nesrt.herokuapp.com/9fqtZ5QhA",
            "createdAt": "2022-05-13T06:31:42.745Z",
            "_id": "627dfb4e5b87ee6879bb7fd0",
            "__v": 0
        }

Route to access the shortened url:

@route GET /:code
@desc Redirect to long/original url

Example : https://nesrt.herokuapp.com/9fqtZ5QhA

By pasting the value of the "shortUrl" from the response body, the required site can be accessed.