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URL Shortening Service (URLSS)

URL shortener service.

Motivation

This app takes a long URL and shrinks it down to fewer characters.

Benefits

Aside from just being more pleasing to the eye, shortened URLs can have the following added benefits:

  • More streamlined in appearance
    • If you’re trying to build a brand and are doing so through a social media campaign, having all your links be the same length and appear very similar is crucial.
    • Shortened links display better in emails, print material, and other places.
  • Tracking capabilities
    • Clicks on the link can be tracked
  • More validity in social media engagement:
    • A shortened link matching other links on your digital marketing materials and social media content lends validity to you as a business.
    • Long URLs with random characters and numbers can look shady, especially to someone who’s a new customer

Downsides

  • Security issues
    • You have no idea where a link is sending you when it’s in a shortened form. This can be helped by using a custom domain, but even then, it could seem suspicious.
  • Unreliable service:
    • links become defunct after timeout

System Design Doc

Technology stack

  • This service should store relatively small amounts of data, no need to store relations between different data models, and redirections should be processed as quickly as possible
  • I use Go with Redis and Base 62 encoding.

Overview

Generating unique URL using randomization and Base62 encoding

Data model information

  • Id integer
  • Original string
  • Expiration date
  • Visits integer

Endpoints:

  • Create a new short link
  • Redirect to the origin URL on passing a short link
  • Get general information about the short link

Insight

source: https://www.example.co.uk:443/blog/article/search?docid=720&hl=en#dayone

Destination: http://localhost:8080/ZNkw23qpiss

Request:

curl -L -X POST 'localhost:8080/encode' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "url": "https://www.example.co.uk:443/blog/article/search?docid=720&hl=en#dayone",
    "expires": "2022-10-04 17:18:00"
}'

Response:

{"success":true,"shortUrl":"http://localhost:8080/ZNkw23qpiss"}