mpeng3/shrtn

Simple URL shortener

shrtn

Simple URL shortener

I started this project to learn more about Dropwizard and building web services.

shrtn's Issues

UrlShortenerResource should return POJOs instead of Response objects

To better fit in with the Dropwizard "Resources" design methodology, the UrlShortenerResource class should be returning a "ShortenedUrl" object instead of a Response object.

Log data each time a URL is expanded

Each time a URL is expanded, log as much data as possible (either to the DB or to a dedicated logging/messaging service).

Examples of data to log include:

• date/time of access
• IP address of requestor
• the URL being expanded
• the user agent performing the expansion

This data could later be used to compute useful statistics/graphs on expansions.

Support HTTPS

"http://" protocol is currently hardcoded. This should be dynamic so that it could operate via https as well.

Basic de-duplication

Should return the same shortened URL when given a previously seen long URL. Duplicate requests for a trending site might eat up lots of storage and can also affect query cache performance.

"I'm Feeling Lucky" feature

Like the Google button.

Support something other than 'localhost:8080' as URL base

A Configuration property would be best. Don't try to intelligently guess hostname since we could be an internal application farm sitting behind external load balancers.

Add validation for URLs

The UrlShortenerResource "redirectUrl" function now converts the stored String to a URI before sending the response. We should make sure that only valid URIs can be created in the DB by the user to report potential problems to the user at time of creation.

Clean up compiler warnings

maven-shade-plugin has detected that some .class files
are present in two or more JARs. When this happens, only
one single version of the class is copied in the uberjar.
Usually this is not harmful and you can skeep these
warnings, otherwise try to manually exclude artifacts
based on mvn dependency:tree -Ddetail=true and the above
output

Use Docker to encapsulate the DB within the application

StdVectorBool suggested using Docker to encapsulate the database into the application.

Ability to disable shortened URLs

It should be possible to disable a malicious URL or maybe any URL (DMCA claim, etc). However, the disabled URL state should be permanent to prevent:

• hijacking a shortened URL to point to different content
• simply running the URL through the shortener again

Web interface for URL shortening

Just a nice looking form and button for now.

Review Dropwizard core manual and create new issues

We should review the Dropwizard core manual and create new issues as needed to take full advantage of the features that the framework has to offer.

Use Google Safe Browsing to prevent saving malicious sites

Link shorteners can be used to obfuscate spam or phishing links. Google Safe Browsing API provides various APIs to check for malicious sites.

Reorganize code into suggested packages

To better conform to the Dropwizard style guide, the project should be refactored to use the suggested package names.

Omit port # from shortened URL if it is the default

To further shorten URLs, omit port # if it is the default - 80 for http or 443 for https.

Move schema creation from UrlDAO to Liquibase

Use Dropwizard Migrations to create database. This allows easy upgrades and rollbacks of the schema without requiring dropping all the data.