a url shortener made using go and redis

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|    <|  |  |   _|-- __|__|  _  |  _  |
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                          |_____| 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 and simpleconfig to be installed. For installing go itself, please follow the fine
instructions at http://golang.org

For installing gorilla/mux do:

    $ go get github.com/gorilla/mux

for installing godis do:

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

for installing simpleconfig do:

    $ go get github.com/fs111/simpleconfig

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
    $ usr/bin/kurz etc/kurz/kurz.conf #assumes that redis is 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