ShrinkL.ink

Shrink long URLs – they exist only as long as you need and can be password protected.

Features

• Shrink absurdly long URLs into small, sharable ones.
• Add a timed duration of when the URL can be accessed. Use cases:
  • sharing a prototype with sponsor users
  • showing website progress to a client
• Apply a passcode to protect access to the URL. Serves as an extra layer of privacy when sharing links.
• Redirect and frame links:
  • Redirect link takes the user directly to the original link
  • Frame link embeds the original link in an iframe to help hide the URL from the user
• Local history of created links with expiration status

Getting Started

Clone the repo and install dependencies.

git clone https://github.com/samrose3/shrink-link.git
cd shrink-link
npm install

Developing

Using Docker Compose

You can run the app in development mode using the docker-compose.dev.yml configuration. This will do the following in two docker containers:

• Run the Express server
• Spin up and link a MongoDB instance

Starting

docker-compose -f "docker-compose.dev.yml" up -d --build

The app should now be running on http://localhost:3000.

Stopping

You can stop the Docker containers with a Compose down command.

docker-compose -f "docker-compose.dev.yml" down

Without Docker

You can also run the app without Docker, just make sure you provide a MongoDB URL as an environment variable. Copy the .env.sample file, rename it to .env, then replace the MONGO_URL with your own URL.

Creating a MongoDB instance

Create a local or hosted MongoDB database before running the app. You can create a free sandbox database on mlab.com if you want an alternative to a local DB.

Create a .env file in the root directory containing your MongoDB URL with credentials. Follow the .env.sample file.

# .env
MONGO_URL=mongodb://<user>:<password>@<hostname>:<port>/shrink-link

Make sure your database is running, then start the app in development mode.

npm run dev

The app should now be running on http://localhost:3000.

Running the production build

You can also use Docker Compose to run the app and the database. This uses the docker-compose.yml configuration. Running the app production mode creates an optimized build and does not activate hot reloading.

Run a production build of the application locally.

docker-compose -f "docker-compose.yml" up -d --build