URL Shortener Application

Welcome to the URL Shortener application! This application is developed using the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js) and Vite. It follows a microservices architecture for scalability and efficiency.

Features

• User Authentication: Users can log in securely using Firebase Authentication to access their account and manage their short URLs.

• URL Shortening: Users can shorten long URLs to create concise and shareable links.

• Storage: Shortened URLs are stored in a MongoDB database to ensure persistence and accessibility.

• Click Tracking: Users can track the number of clicks on their shortened URLs to monitor their popularity and engagement.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed on your local machine:

• Node.js: Make sure you have Node.js installed. You can download it from here.

• MongoDB: MongoDB is required for storing data. If you don't have MongoDB installed locally, you can download and install it from here.

• Docker Desktop: Docker Desktop is needed to run Docker containers for some services. You can download and install it from here.

• ZooKeeper: ZooKeeper is used for range allocation.

Project Structure

The project is structured into three microservices:

1. Fetcher Service: Responsible for fetching original URLs from the database.

2. Redirector Service: Handles redirecting shortened URLs to their original destinations.

3. Shortener Service: Manages URL shortening and storage functionalities.

Usage

Follow these steps to set up and run the URL Shortener application locally:

1. Clone the repository to your local machine.

2. Navigate to the project directory.

3. Install dependencies for both frontend and backend:

   cd client
   npm install
   cd ../server
   npm install
   

4. Start the MongoDB server (change your database url to mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017 if you're using mongod locally):

   mongod
   

   Alternatively, you can use the docker-compose.yml file in 'server/mongoDB' to create a Docker application with sharded clusters. Refer to this blog for more information.

5. Start ZooKeeper using the Docker Compose file located in server/services/Shortener/zookeeper:

   docker-compose up -d 
   

6. Start each microservice (Fetcher, Redirector, Shortener) in Docker containers:

   cd server/services/Shortener
   docker-compose up -d --build
   cd ../Fetcher
   docker-compose up -d --build
   cd ../Redirector
   docker-compose up -d --build
   

7. Check if each service is successfully connected to the database by accessing their logs.

8. Finally, start the frontend:

   cd ../../client
   npm start
   

9. Access the application in your browser at http://localhost:5173.

Contributions

Contributions to this project are welcome! If you have any suggestions or improvements, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.