URL Shortener

A full‑stack URL shortener built with React (Vite) frontend and an Express + MongoDB backend. Features include user authentication (JWT via cookies), custom short IDs, click tracking with Redis caching, and rate limiting.

Features

Core Features

• Email/password authentication with JWT cookies
• Shorten URLs with optional custom short IDs
• Fast redirect/retrieval via Redis caching
• Click tracking with real-time counters
• Per-user URL management dashboard
• Rate limiting on auth and URL creation endpoints
• Input validation with Zod

Architecture

• Client: React + Vite in client/ (uses Tailwind-style UI components)
• Server: Express app in server/ connecting to MongoDB and Redis
• Authentication: JWT stored in HTTP-only cookie
• Redis: Caching shortId → longUrl mappings and click counters

Tech Stack

Frontend

• React 19 with Vite
• TailwindCSS 4 for styling
• React Router for navigation
• Axios for API calls
• Radix UI components
• React Hook Form + Zod validation

Backend

• Express 5
• MongoDB with Mongoose
• Redis for caching
• JWT authentication
• bcryptjs for password hashing
• Winston for logging
• Helmet & CORS for security

Quick start (development)

1️⃣ Clone and install dependencies

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/vansh4117v/url-shortener.git
cd url-shortener

# Install server dependencies
cd server
npm install

# Install client dependencies
cd ../client
npm install

2️⃣ Setup environment variables

Create .env files in both server/ and client/ directories.

Server (server/.env):

NODE_ENV=development
PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://<user>:<pass>@cluster.mongodb.net/urlshortener
JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-jwt-key-min-32-chars-long
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=7d
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=http://localhost:5173
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379

Client (client/.env):

VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000/api

Tip: Copy from .env.example files if available

3️⃣ Start Redis server

Make sure Redis is running locally:

redis-server
# or use Docker: docker run -d -p 6379:6379 redis

4️⃣ Run the application

Open two terminal windows:

Terminal 1 - Server:

cd server
npm run dev

Terminal 2 - Client:

cd client
npm run dev

The client will open at http://localhost:5173 and connect to the API at http://localhost:5000.

API Endpoints

Base URL: http://localhost:5000/api

🔐 Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/auth/signup	Register new user	❌
POST	/auth/signin	Sign in user	❌
GET	/auth/me	Get current user	✅
POST	/auth/logout	Logout user	✅

🔗 URL Management

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/url/shorten	Create short URL	✅
GET	/url/	Get all user URLs	✅
GET	/url/:shortId	Redirect to long URL	❌
GET	/url/:shortId/info	Get URL metadata	✅
DELETE	/url/:shortId	Delete URL	✅

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Made with by vansh4117v