url-shortener

README

url-shortener

An URL shortener using named URLs.

Tests

This is an implementation of an equivalent of go/ used inside Google. Read about it by Kevin Burke.

Build

To create clean binaries, we use Docker. Install docker, then run

./build.sh.

It will generate a docker image lascap/url-shortener that you can deploy.

Authentication

By default every one can follow a shortened link, list links or create a new one and noone can edit or delete an old one.

However if by using a reverse proxy in front of the URL shortener that authenticates users, you can restrict creating new links, listing and following them.

If you use such an authentication proxy, you can forward the user's ID through an X-Forwarded-User that will enable new features:

• When creating a link, the owner is recorded.
• Users can delete their own links.
• Super users (see Configuration below) may delete any links.

Configuration

The following env variables are used:

• PORT: defines the port on which to listen. Defaults to 5000.
• MONGODB_URL: the URL to connect to MongoDB. Format: [mongodb://][user:pass@]host1[:port1][,host2[:port2],...][/database][?options]
• MONGODB_DB_NAME: the name of the MongoDB database (default to "url-shortener").
• MONGODB_COLLECTION_NAME: the name of the MongoDB database (default to "shortURL").
• SHORT_URL_PREFIX: An URL prefix to display nicer URLs if you have a rewriter enabled, e.g. http://go/.
• SUPER_USERS: A comma separated list of user IDs of users that can delete any links.

Setup

Once deployed on a server, we recommend that your users automatically redirect even shorter links to the server. Here is the setup I use:

• Have each user install Requestly.
• Make them add a rule "Replace Host", where they replace http://go/ by http://URL-of-your-server.com/.

With this setup you can have very-easy-to-remember links to important documents and pages.