URL Shortener Backend

This project is a Django-based URL Shortener API that allows users to shorten URLs, retrieve the original URLs, update or delete shortened URLs, and view statistics for each shortened URL. This is a home takeaway assignment project by Innovaxel.

Deployed Link

Maybe the execution won’t work as the free Render DB has likely expired, but you can check out the API docs.

https://url-shortener-1ic7.onrender.com/swagger

Features

• Shorten URL: Generate a short URL for a given original URL.
• Redirect URL: Retrieve the original URL using the short URL.
• Update URL: Update the original URL associated with a short URL.
• Delete URL: Delete a short URL.
• Statistics: View statistics such as hit count for a short URL.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd <repository-folder>

2. Create a virtual environment and activate it:

   python -m venv env
   source env/bin/activate  # On Windows: env\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run migrations:

   python manage.py migrate

5. Collect static files:

   python manage.py collectstatic --noinput

6. Start the development server:

   python manage.py runserver

API Endpoints

1. Shorten URL

• Endpoint: /shorten/
• Method: POST
• Request Body:

  {
     "original_url": "https://example.com"
  }

• Response:

  {
     "short_url": "abc123",
     "original_url": "https://example.com",
     "created_at": "2025-04-19T15:23:00Z",
     "updated_at": "2025-04-19T15:23:00Z",
     "hit_count": 0
  }

2. Redirect URL

• Endpoint: /<short_url>/
• Method: GET
• Response:

  {
     "short_url": "abc123",
     "original_url": "https://example.com",
     "hit_count": 1
  }

3. Update URL

• Endpoint: /update/<short_url>/
• Method: PUT
• Request Body:

  {
     "original_url": "https://new-example.com"
  }

• Response:

  {
     "short_url": "abc123",
     "original_url": "https://new-example.com",
     "updated_at": "2025-04-20T10:00:00Z"
  }

4. Delete URL

• Endpoint: /delete/<short_url>/
• Method: DELETE
• Response: 204 No Content

5. Statistics

• Endpoint: /statistics/<short_url>/
• Method: GET
• Response:

  {
     "short_url": "abc123",
     "original_url": "https://example.com",
     "hit_count": 10
  }

Middleware and Libraries

• Gunicorn: Used as the WSGI HTTP server.
• WhiteNoise: Serves static files efficiently.
• Django CORS Headers: Handles Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS).

Development

Running Tests

To run tests, use:

python manage.py test

Code Structure

• main_app/models.py: Contains the ShortURL model.
• main_app/views.py: Contains API views for URL shortening, redirection, updating, deletion, and statistics.
• main_app/serializers.py: Serializes and deserializes data for the ShortURL model.
• main_app/urls.py: Defines API endpoints.
• url_shortener_API/settings.py: Configures Django settings, including CORS and static file handling.