URL Shortener

A .NET 8 web application for shortening URLs with QR code generation capabilities, built with ASP.NET Core and Azure Table Storage.

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK
• Azure Storage Account (for storing URL mappings)
• Optional: Visual Studio 2022 or VS Code with C# extensions

Configuration

The application requires configuration in appsettings.json or via user secrets:

1. Azure Storage Connection String: Configure the Azure Table Storage connection
2. Security Token: Set a security token for protected operations
3. QR Code Theme (optional): Customize QR code appearance

Using User Secrets (Recommended for Development)

cd Egineering.UrlShortener
dotnet user-secrets set "ConnectionStrings:AzureStorage" "your-azure-storage-connection-string"
dotnet user-secrets set "SecurityToken" "your-security-token"

Using appsettings.Development.json

Create or update Egineering.UrlShortener/appsettings.Development.json:

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "AzureStorage": "UseDevelopmentStorage=true"
  },
  "SecurityToken": "your-dev-token"
}

Note: For local development, you can use Azurite emulator with UseDevelopmentStorage=true.

Running the Application

Option 1: Using .NET CLI (Recommended)

Due to Windows port restrictions (Hyper-V reserved ports), use explicit port configuration:

dotnet run --project Egineering.UrlShortener/Egineering.UrlShortener.csproj --urls "http://localhost:8080;https://localhost:8081"

The application will start at:

• HTTP: http://localhost:8080
• HTTPS: https://localhost:8081

Option 2: Using Visual Studio

1. Open Egineering.UrlShortener.sln
2. Set Egineering.UrlShortener as the startup project
3. Press F5 or click the Run button

Option 3: Using VS Code

1. Open the workspace folder
2. Press F5 or use the Run and Debug panel
3. Select ".NET Core Launch (web)" configuration

Accessing the Application

• Main Page: http://localhost:8080/ - View all shortened URLs
• Setup Page: http://localhost:8080/setup - Configure security key
• Swagger UI: http://localhost:8080/swagger (Development mode only)

API Usage

QR Codes

To generate a QR code, base64 encode a URL and make a GET request to /api/qr/{url} or a POST request to /api/qr with the base64 encoded URL in the payload. For example:

curl https://yoururl.com/api/qr -k -X POST -d '{"url":"d3d3LmUtZ2luZWVyaW5nLmNvbS9jb250YWN0LXVz"}' -H 'content-type: application/json'

Project Structure

• Egineering.UrlShortener - Main web application (ASP.NET Core)
• Egineering.UrlShortener.Services - Business logic and Azure Table Storage service
• wwwroot - Static files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

Technology Stack

• .NET 8 - Runtime and framework
• ASP.NET Core - Web framework
• Azure Table Storage - URL mapping storage
• Material Components for the Web - UI components
• QRCoder - QR code generation (assumed from QR functionality)

Troubleshooting

Socket Access Error / Port Restrictions

If you encounter "An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions":

Windows users: This is caused by Hyper-V reserving port ranges. Use the explicit port configuration:

dotnet run --project Egineering.UrlShortener/Egineering.UrlShortener.csproj --urls "http://localhost:8080;https://localhost:8081"

To check which ports are reserved on your system:

netsh interface ipv4 show excludedportrange protocol=tcp

Azure Storage Connection Issues

If you see connection errors, verify:

• Your connection string is correctly configured
• Azure Storage account is accessible
• For local development, Azurite emulator is running

Missing Dependencies

Run dotnet restore to ensure all NuGet packages are installed.