Shorty - URL shortner in node.js
Shorty is a simple short URL generator built using Node.js , Express.js and Redis
Installation
Pre-requistes for Running shorty you need:
- Node.js
-
Note: You can also use:
- free node.js hosting plan from Heroku
- free redis 25mb plan from Redis lab , it can store about 75000 short urls
*Step 1 : *
Open Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T on most Linux distributions) and clone the shorty repository from here
git clone https://github.com/Waterloo/shorty
*Step 2 : *
Navigate into the cloned directory
cd shorty
*Step 3 : *
Install the required modules from Node.js for shorty
npm install
*Step 4 : *
If you have installed a Redis server, you have to manually start the server.
redis-server
Note the port number from the commands that appear on the screen.
If you're using a hosted Redis service, the default port number would be 6379. This will be detailed on the service provider's end when you sign up for the service.
Once you get your redis-server running, you won't have a shell ($) prompt. To get the shell prompt back, you could use the Ctrl+Z combination to push the redis-server to the background and get your shell prompt back.
*Step 5 : *
Open app.js in a text editor of your choice (or an IDE) and replace the port to the port running the Redis server and endpoint to the host running the Redis server.
Note : if you have redis-server running locally on your machine, the endpoint should be the loopback address of your localhost : 127.0.0.1. If you have a hosted redis service, the provider will provide you with a hostname which you can use as the endpoint.
var client = redis.createClient(port, 'endpoint');
Replace the password with your Redis server password
client.auth('password', function (err)
*Step 6 : *
With all the setup ready to roll, you can now run shorty from the terminal
node app.js
The terminal will show you the address from where you can access the shorty interface.
Have fun shortening your favorite URLs with shorty