Rust URL Shortener Service

A full‑stack URL shortening service built entirely in Rust using Actix‑web and Diesel with SQLite. This service allows users to:

• Create Short URLs: Submit a long URL and receive a unique, shortened URL.
• List URLs: Retrieve a list of all shortened URLs.
• Redirection: Visit a short URL to be automatically redirected to the original URL.

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Why Use Rust?

• Performance: Rust is known for its high performance and low overhead, making it ideal for building fast, scalable web services.
• Memory Safety: Rust’s ownership system guarantees memory safety without needing a garbage collector, which minimizes runtime errors.
• Concurrency: Rust provides powerful concurrency primitives that help in building robust, multi-threaded applications.
• Modern Tooling: With a growing ecosystem, Rust offers excellent tooling (cargo, rustfmt, clippy) for building and maintaining reliable software.
• Reliability: Rust’s strict compile-time checks catch many bugs early in development, ensuring a more reliable codebase.

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Technology Stack

• Web Framework: Actix‑web
• ORM & Database: Diesel with SQLite
• Environment Management: dotenvy for environment variables
• Utilities: rand for generating short codes, chrono for timestamps

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File Structure

rust-url-shortener/
├── Cargo.toml
├── .env
├── migrations/
│   └── 20230310123456_create_urls/
│       ├── up.sql
│       └── down.sql
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs
│   ├── db.rs
│   ├── models.rs
│   ├── schema.rs
│   └── routes.rs
└── README.md

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust & Cargo: Install via rustup.rs
• SQLite: Ensure SQLite is installed on your system.
• Diesel CLI: Install Diesel CLI with SQLite support by running:

  cargo install diesel_cli --no-default-features --features sqlite

Setup

1. Clone the Repository or Create the Project Folder

   You can create the file structure using the following terminal commands:

   # Create project directory and initialize a new binary project
   mkdir rust-url-shortener
   cd rust-url-shortener
   cargo init --bin
   
   # Create directories for Diesel migrations
   mkdir -p migrations/20230310123456_create_urls
   
   # Create migration SQL files
   touch migrations/20230310123456_create_urls/up.sql
   touch migrations/20230310123456_create_urls/down.sql
   
   # Create additional source files
   cd src
   touch db.rs models.rs schema.rs routes.rs
   cd ..

2. Create a .env File

   In the project root, create a file named .env with the following content (adjust values as needed):

   DATABASE_URL=rust_url_shortener.db
   BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080

3. Run Diesel Migrations

   Set up the database schema by running:

   diesel migration run

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Running the Application

1. Build and Run the Server

   cargo run

   The server will start at http://localhost:8080.

2. API Endpoints

• Create URL:
  POST / with JSON body:

  {
    "original_url": "https://example.com"
  }

  Returns the created URL entry with a generated short code.

• List URLs:
  GET / returns a list of shortened URLs.

• Redirection:
  GET /{short_code} redirects to the original URL if found.

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Customization

• Changing the BASE_URL:
  Update the BASE_URL variable in your .env file to reflect your domain (e.g., https://yourdomain.com).

• Extending Functionality:
  Modify or add additional endpoints in src/routes.rs and update models in src/models.rs as needed.

• Integrating a Frontend:
  This example provides a robust backend API. You can build a frontend in your preferred technology to consume this API.

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Contributing

Feel free to fork this repository and submit pull requests with improvements or customizations. For issues or feature requests, please open an issue.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Authors

The UNC-CH Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) team.