Go-Fiber URL Shortener

A backend service built using Go and Redis to shorten the URL

About The Project

The project is a URL shortening service that provides and stores your shortened URL like bitly. This app is built using Go and Redis. For building the API I used the Go Fiber framework. This is a containerized application where we basically create 2 containers - one for API and another for Redis and then connect them using docker-compose. The API container is built using the Dockerfile and the Redis container is pulled from the Docker Hub.

Built With

• Go
• Redis
• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Go Fiber

Project Structure

Below is the project structure:

.
├── api
│   ├── Dockerfile        # Dockerfile for the API
│   ├── database          # Database package
│   │   └── database.go
│   ├── go.mod
│   ├── go.sum
│   ├── helpers           # Helper functions
│   │   └── helpers.go
│   ├── main.go           # Entrypoint for the API
│   └── routes            # Routes package
│       ├── resolve.go    # Resolve the shortened URL
│       └── shorten.go    # Shorten the URL
├── .data                 # Data directory for Redis
├── db                    # Dockerfile for Redis
│   └── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml    # Docker Compose file
└── image.png

Architecture and Working

The entrypoint for this applicaiton is main.go file which is located in the /api subdirectory. The main.go file first loads the environment variables from the .env file which is alsi in the /api subdirectory. The .env file looks like this:

DB_ADDR="db:6379"
DB_PASS=""
APP_PORT=":3000"
DOMAIN="localhost:3000"
APP_QUOTA=10

The DB_ADDR variable is the address of the Redis database. Since we are using docker-compose, we can use the name of the service as the address. The DB_PASS variable is the password for the Redis database. The APP_PORT variable is the port on which the API will run. The DOMAIN variable is the domain name of the API. The APP_QUOTA variable is the number of shorten URL requests that can be made to the API in 30 minutes.

After loading the environment variables, the main function then creates a new fiber app and then registers the routes. The routes are defined in the /api/routes subdirectory. The /api/routes/shorten.go file contains the logic for shortening the URL. The /api/routes/resolve.go file contains the logic for resolving the shortened URL. The /api/database/database.go file contains the logic for connecting to the Redis database. The /api/helpers/helpers.go file contains the helper functions.

The routes and the database package interact with the Redis database using the go-redis package.

Installation and Running the Project

1. Clone the repo and change the directory to the project directory

   git clone https://github.com/ayushgml/go-fiber-url-shortener.git
   cd go-fiber-url-shortener

2. Create a .env file in the /api subdirectory and add the variables.

   cd api
   touch .env
   cd ..

   Also the .env file looks like this:

   DB_ADDR="db:6379"
   DB_PASS=""
   APP_PORT=":3000"
   DOMAIN="localhost:3000"
   APP_QUOTA=10
   

3. Run the following command to start the application

   docker-compose up

   As this is a microservices architecture based that contains of 2 services - API and Redis, we use docker-compose to run the application. After the containers are up and running the API will be available at localhost:3000. The containers look like this in your Docker desktop:

   

Contact

Ayush Gupta - @itsayush__ - ayushgml@gmail.com

Project link