URL Shortener

A full-stack URL shortening service built with Spring Boot and React.

🔗 Live Demo: https://url-shortener-sigma-lovat.vercel.app

Features

• Shorten any URL instantly
• Custom expiry dates
• Click tracking and analytics
• Automatic cleanup of expired links
• Input validation and error handling

Tech Stack

Backend

• Java 17 + Spring Boot 3.5.1
• Spring Data JPA + Hibernate
• PostgreSQL
• Spring Validation

Frontend

• React + Vite
• Tailwind CSS

Deployment

• Backend: Railway
• Frontend: Vercel
• Database: PostgreSQL on Railway

Architecture

User → Vercel (React) → Railway (Spring Boot) → PostgreSQL

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/shorten	Shorten a URL
GET	/{shortCode}	Redirect to original URL
GET	/api/stats/{shortCode}	Get link statistics
DELETE	/api/urls/{shortCode}	Delete a link

Run Locally

Backend

cd urlshortener
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Design Decisions

• Base62 encoding generates 6-character codes giving 56 billion unique combinations
• Collision detection re-generates codes if a duplicate is found
• Scheduled cleanup runs nightly to delete expired links
• Environment-based configuration for easy deployment