Scalable URL Shortener

This is a highly scalable and robust URL shortener service built with a microservices architecture. The goal is to provide a reliable platform for creating, managing, and tracking short URLs. The application is designed to handle high traffic, offering real-time click analytics and a seamless user experience.

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Features

• Core Functionality: Create short, random URLs from any long URL.
• User Management: Secure user authentication with password-based and Google OAuth login, including account registration and password resets.
• Real-time Analytics: View real-time click counts and analytics for your short URLs.
• QR Code Generation: Instantly generate QR codes for any shortened link.
• Link Control: Easily edit the short URL path, and activate or deactivate links at any time.
• High Performance: Built to handle millions of requests with low latency.
• Scalable Architecture: The microservices design ensures the system can grow to meet increasing demand.

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Technology Stack

Our decoupled architecture uses a modern tech stack to ensure performance and scalability.

Frontend:

• Thymeleaf

Backend:

• Spring Modulith: A Java framework for building modular, maintainable, and scalable backend services.
• Kafka: An event streaming platform that handles real-time click events, decoupling the click logging from analytics processing.
• Redis: An in-memory data store used for caching URL lookups, significantly reducing database load and improving redirection speed.
• PostgreSQL: A powerful and reliable relational database for persistent storage of user and URL data.

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System Architecture

The project is structured around several independent microservices (Currently deployed together as part of a modular monolith) that communicate with each other. This design allows for independent scaling, development, and deployment of each component.

• AuthService: Manages all user authentication flows (login, registration, password resets).
• ShortenerService: The core service for creating, updating, and managing short URLs.
• AnalyticsService: Consumes click events from Kafka to process and store aggregated analytics data.
• ClickService: A lightweight, high-performance service responsible for redirecting users and logging click events to Kafka.
• NotificationService: A service that subscribes to click events to send notifications.

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Getting Started

To get the project up and running, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/fred-maina/url-shortener
   cd url-shortener

2. Set up the environment:

   • Make sure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed.
   • Set up your environment variables for database credentials and API keys (e.g., for Google OAuth).

3. Run the application: Use Docker Compose to start all services and dependencies (PostgreSQL, Kafka, Redis).

   docker compose up -d

4. Access the application:

   • The services will be running on their respective ports.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.