Go URL Shortener

A full-stack URL shortener application with a high-performance Go backend and React frontend.

🚀 Features

• User Authentication: JWT-based authentication with secure password hashing
• URL Shortening: Generate short URLs with customizable expiration dates
• Redis Caching: Fast URL resolution with 30-minute cache TTL
• MySQL Database: Persistent storage using GORM ORM
• Metrics Dashboard: Built-in monitoring endpoint
• Security: HTTP-only cookies, CORS protection, and secure token handling

🏗️ Architecture

go-url-shortener/
├── api/          # Go backend (Fiber framework)
├── client/       # React frontend (Vite + TypeScript)
└── docker-compose.yml

🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend

• Framework: Fiber v2
• Database: MySQL with GORM
• Cache: Redis
• Authentication: JWT (JSON Web Tokens)
• Password Hashing: bcrypt

Frontend

• Framework: React 19
• Build Tool: Vite
• Language: TypeScript
• Styling: Tailwind CSS

📋 Prerequisites

• Go 1.24.4 or higher
• Node.js and npm
• MySQL 8.0 or higher
• Redis server
• Docker and Docker Compose (optional)

🚀 Quick Start

1. Start Infrastructure Services

Using Docker Compose:

docker-compose up -d

This starts MySQL on port 3306.

2. Backend Setup

cd api

# Install dependencies
go mod download

# Create .env file (see api/README.md for details)
# Set environment variables:
# - APP_PORT=:8080
# - MYSQL_HOST=localhost:3306
# - MYSQL_USER=root
# - MYSQL_PASS=root
# - MYSQL_DB=url_shortener
# - REDIS_ADDR=localhost:6379
# - JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key

# Run the server
go run main.go

The API will be available at http://localhost:8080

3. Frontend Setup

cd client

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

The frontend will be available at http://localhost:3000 (or the port Vite assigns)

📡 API Endpoints

Public

• POST /api/v1/create-user - Register new user
• POST /api/v1/login - User login
• POST /api/v1/logout - User logout
• GET /:short - Resolve short URL (redirects to original)

Protected (Requires Authentication)

• POST /api/v1/shorten - Create short URL
• DELETE /api/v1/delete - Delete short URL

Monitoring

• GET /metrics - Application metrics dashboard

For detailed API documentation, see api/README.md

🔐 Security Features

• Password hashing with bcrypt (cost factor 10)
• JWT tokens with HS256 signing
• HTTP-only cookies to prevent XSS
• CORS protection
• Secure cookies in production
• Transaction-safe database operations

📦 Project Structure

Backend (api/)

• config/ - Database and Redis configuration
• models/ - Data models (User, URL)
• routes/ - API route handlers
• utils/ - Utility functions (JWT, logger, env parser)

Frontend (client/)

• src/ - React application source code
• Built with Vite for fast development and optimized builds

🐳 Docker

The project includes a docker-compose.yml file for easy setup of MySQL. Redis can be added similarly or run separately.

📝 Environment Variables

See api/README.md for complete environment variable documentation.

📚 Documentation

• Backend API Documentation - Detailed API documentation, endpoints, and setup instructions

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit issues or pull requests.