url-aliaser by Cyprien Borée

This application serves as a user-friendly URL aliasing server. Users can provide long URLs, and the server generates shortened aliases that redirect to the original URLs. The aliases act as convenient shortcuts for accessing the original links.

Setup

Building the server

To get started, follow these steps to build the url-aliaser server:

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the cloned directory.
2. Build the application using the go command:

go build ./...

Upon successful compilation, you'll find a new executable named url-aliaser in the current directory.

Running Unit Tests (Optional)

You can run unit tests to ensure the application functions correctly. Use the following command to execute the tests:

go test ./...

Usage

The URLAliaser server runs by default on http://localhost:8080.

To create a shortened alias, make a POST request to the `/alias`` endpoint with a JSON payload. The payload must adhere to the following structure:

{
    "url" : "https://example.com",
    "length" : 10
}

• url: The original link you want to shorten (required).
• length: The desired maximum length of the shortened alias (required).

The server will store the provided URL, generate a new alias, and respond with the following JSON payload:

{
    "url" : "http://localhost:8080/xxxx"
}

• url: The shortened alias, where xxxx is a randomly generated string matching the requested length.

example with Curl

In the following command, replace https://example.com with the url you wish to alias.

$ curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "length":10}' http://localhost:8080/alias
{"url":"http://localhost:8080/100680ad54"}

After this command, you can use http://localhost:8080/100680ad54 as a redirection to https://example.com.