SimplyURL

Introduction

A python Restful application designed to shorten the URLs.

How to run and test the application

• Run the Flask application with one of the three methods

  1. Docker Hub Repository

  https://hub.docker.com/r/csociety/simply-url
  

  2. Manually create Docker image
  • Build the contianer image

  docker build -t simply-url .
  

  • Run the container with simply-url image

  docker run -d -p 5002:5000 --name=simply-url  -v $PWD/url_mapping.json:/code/url_mapping.json simply-url
  

  3. Python virtual environment

  • Create a virtual env using Python Virtual Env

  • Install the requirement

  pip3 install -r requirements
  

  • Run the below gunicorn command to run the Python RestAPI application

  gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:5001 api.wsgi:app --timeout=3600 --workers=2 --reload
  

  • As we do not have a UI at the moment, please use Postman to send the POST request

• To run the unit tests use the command below

  • Python virtual environment

  python3 -m pytest
  

  • Docker container

  docker exec -it simply-url python -m pytest
  

• Once the Flask application is up and running use the below URL to access the Swagger UI

  Due to CORS issue Swagger will give error while using the /s/{shortenedId} API, please directly access the URL using a browser.

  http://0.0.0.0:5001/swagger-ui
  

Completed features

• Python Restful file structure.
• Setup gunicorn server.
• Shortener service that will accept a URL as an argument over a REST API and return a shortened URL as a result.
• The URL and shortened URL should be stored in memory by application.
• Implemented the Redirector resource to convert the shortened URL to the Original URL.
• If the same URL is asked again, it should give the same URL as it gave before instead of generating a new one.
• Handled the rare case of favicon.ico being asked.
• Dockerization of the application.
• Instead of in memory, store these things in a text file.
• Added error handling in file handling and import statement.
• Swagger documentation.
• Unit tests.
• Github Action CI/CD
• Docker hub image creation CI

TODO

• As it is hard to scale the application while using a file to store the data, rather we may use a DB such as Postgres or SQL lite.