URL_Shortener

API Endpoints

POST - /make_url

• Requires the destination address in the body
• Returns the shortened code ONLY

GET - /:encoded

• Pass the shortened code at root ("/"),
• redirects via a 302 to the target site
• If a message, returns the message as a json pair

GET - /clicks/:encoded

• Pass the shortened code
• Returns the amount of clicks for that specific code.

Setup

cd exapi

export SUPABASE_ADDRESS="Your Address"
export SUPABASE_KEY="Your Key"

# To get a secret key run the command below
mix phx.gen.secret
export SECRET_KEY_BASE="Secret Key"

mix phx.server

• Update config.js to point to the new backend
• If local dev, point to "http://localhost:4000"

Performance

• Initial encoding takes approximately ~ 15 milliseconds, after verification of the URL
• Redirects take approximately ~ 150 microseconds.

Optimizations

• Added Prewarming redirect caching to improve times from 5ms to 150µs
• Instead of directing my backend to the supabase backend via cloudflare (supabase.jam06452.uk), I changed it for the interal machine address
• Instead of writing directly to database syncronosly, I changed it to use async to run it in the backround for time improvements from 150ms to 5ms
• Use of Cachex.fetch!() to see if the redirect was in the cache already, if it was not, it gets it from the database and puts it in cache

Tech stack

• Supabase for DB
• Cachex for caching within Elixir
• Elixir & Phoenix for backend APIs

Deployment

• Free Oracle VM for backend & frontend
• Both use GitHub actions for auto deployment on main branch

AI Generated Files

• Frontend
• Dockerfile for elixir