README.md

 __
|  |--.--.--.----.-----.  .-----.-----.
|    <|  |  |   _|-- __|__|  _  |  _  |
|__|__|_____|__| |_____|__|___  |_____|
                          |_____| by @fs111

kurz.go - a url shortener in go

kurz.go is my attempt to write a program that is actually useful in go. Right now it is in beta stage.

Right now it can shorten URLs, redirect and list the latest stored URLs. All urls are stored in a redis (http://redis.io) instance.

Compiling kurz.go

Next to having a full install of go itself, kurz.go requires gorilla.mux, godis, simpleconfig and go-logging to be installed. For installing go itself, please follow the fine instructions at http://golang.org

For installing godis do:

$ go get github.com/simonz05/godis

For installing simpleconfig do:

$ go get github.com/fs111/simpleconfig

For installing go-logging do:

$ go get github.com/op/go-logging

For installing gorilla/mux do:

$ go get code.google.com/p/gorilla/mux

for installing godis do:

$ go get github.com/simonz05/godis/redis

for installing simpleconfig do:

$ go get github.com/fs111/simpleconfig

for installing go-logging do:

$ go get github.com/op/go-logging

for installing godotenv do:

$ go get github.com/op/godotenv

Or if you're in a hurry

cat README.md | grep -o 'go get.*' | xargs -n 3

Note: These modules will be installed into your $GOROOT, so make sure it is writable. Alternatively you can set $GOPATH and they will be installed there instead.

Once the dependecies are installed, check out kurz.go:

$ git clone https://github.com/fs111/kurz.go
$ cd kurz.go
$ make
$ cd target
$ cp .env.sample .env # More details on .env in https://github.com/joho/godotenv
$ usr/bin/kurz # Redis should be up and running

In order to shorten a url POST it to http://localhost:9999/shorten/ with the parameter url set to the long url. In return, you will get a json document containing the long and the short url. If you open the shortened URL, "kurz" will do the expected thing an redirect you to the original URL. All functionality is shown below:

# store a URL
$ curl -L http://localhost:9999/shorten/ --data-urlencode "url=https://github.com/fs111/kurz.go"

# {"Key":"eIi","ShortUrl":"http://localhost:9999/eIi","LongUrl":"http://github.com/fs111/kurz.go","CreationDate":1321486517214982000,"Clicks":0}

# open a URL
$ curl -L http://localhost:9999/eIi

# Redirecting to: http://github.com/fs111/kurz.go

# show information about a url
$ curl http://localhost:9999/eIi+ # notice the bit.ly style + in the end

{"Key":"eIi","ShortUrl":"http://localhost:9999/eIi","LongUrl":"http://github.com/fs111/kurz.go","CreationDate":1321486517214982000,"Clicks":1}

# list latest URLs

$ curl  http://localhost:9999/latest/1
# { "urls" : [{"Key":"eIi","ShortUrl":"http://localhost:9999/eIi","LongUrl":"http://github.com/fs111/kurz.go","CreationDate":1321486517214982000,"Clicks":0}] }

All urls are stored in redis and if you set it up so, that it persists data to disk, the state can be kept forever. Since there is no real state within kurz.go, you could run multiple instances of it, but I have not tried it yet.

UI

The amazing @vormplus made a great looking frontend for kurz.go, which you can see, if you visit http://localhost:9999/index.htm. If you want to reload the latest urls on that page, just press "." and the table will be refreshed.

Testing it out

The 'stuff' directory contains a shell-script that imports a csv file into kurz.go. Just try it out!

Note: The csv file might contain some NSFW urls, I found it on the interwebs somewhere. You have been warned.

Have fun with it!

-- @fs111