rbuitragoc / shrink

Shrinking URLs á la skill share

Shrink

Shrinking URLs á la skill share.

This README file contains 3 main sections:

1. Intro to Shrink
2. Configuration
3. Using the CLI

Introduction to Shrink

Shrink is a ver basic tool that, essentially, shrinks URLs via CLI using a REST API and MongoDB. It has two main components:

• The API: This enables all services to shrink and redirect to source URLs.
• The CLI: This is the official interface to access all Shrink functionality.

Available Operations

Shrink allows you to:

• Shrink any URL: You can use the CLI with the this: command to obtain the shrunk URL. See more details in the "Using the CLI" section below.
• Get stats from any shrunk URL (or the 'original' URL, works both ways): You can use the CLI with the stats: command.
• Toggle on/off any shrunk URL (or the 'original' URL): You can use the CLI with the toggle: command.

Configuration

Required Configuration

All of the configuration is defaulted, but you can base on the following snippet to create a .env file with overrides to any (or all) of them:

   # Database host/port config. (Default: mongodb://localhost:27017/shrink)
   DB_HOST=mongodb://my.hosted.mongo.com:29000/shortenerdata

   # Domain of your choice (Default: shri.nk)
   DOMAIN=sho.rt

   # Port override (Default: 80)
   PORT=8080

   # Protocol (Default: http)
   PROTOCOL=https

Optional Configuration

You may want to add a line to your /etc/hosts file to have nice routing to your defined domain (see above).

CLI Configuration

Our CLI works as a node command that is executed by npm. In turn, we advise you create an alias so that it can be used with ease:

alias shrink='npm run cli'

Docker Mongo Instance

Run a local image of MongoDB to avoid installing anything:

docker pull mongo:3-xenial && docker run -d --name mongo-container -p 27017:27017 mongo:3-xenial

Using Shrink CLI

You can shrink an url by passing the command this:. NOTE: This call is idempotent, meaning that it will return on every equal request the same shrunk URL after it has been shrunk the first time.

shrink this: http://www.skillshare.com

You can also retrieve stats of the times this shrunk URL has been used by passing the stats: command.

shrink stats: http://shri.nk/emI05

Finally, your shrunk URL can be disabled temporarily, by passing the toggle: command. It will return 409 if the URL is used while disabled. This call is a switch to alternate between 'enabled' and 'disabled' status.

shrink toggle: http://www.bbc.co.uk

shrink's Issues

Add a Work Queue for every unfurl request

Currently, a request to unfurl is tied to persisting stats. Make it asynchronous by adding a simple work queue that defers the stats writing and allows the redirect to occur more independently.

Need CLI Help option

Need to print instructions for the CLI user.

Toggling 'nada' breaks

Handle a misconstructed URL for the toggle command.

Handle double-shrinking

Currently, a request to shrink an already shrunk URL is served. We need to add code to validate such requests and handle gracefully.