🔗 ShortLink – URL Shortening & QR Management Platform

A modern, scalable, and secure backend service for URL shortening, QR generation, and link analytics.

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🌟 Introduction

ShortLink is a backend API platform that powers the ShortLink web application.
It provides core functionalities such as URL shortening, QR code generation, authentication, and analytics.
Built with Node.js, Express, and TypeScript, it follows a clean modular architecture ensuring scalability, maintainability, and developer productivity.

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🧠 Tech Stack

Backend

DevOps & Tools

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⚙️ Features

Category	Description
🔐 Authentication	Secure login, registration, and token refresh using JWT.
🔗 URL Shortening (CRUD)	Create, update, retrieve, and delete short URLs with optional password protection.
📷 QR Code Generation	Generate downloadable QR codes for shortened URLs using built-in QR utilities.
🧾 QR History Management	Track user QR scans and store them with pagination.
📊 Link Analytics	Count and visualize number of visits per alias.
🧠 Rate Limiting	Prevent abuse with request throttling.
🧰 Validation Layer	Schema validation via Zod and Joi equivalents.
☁️ File & Image Storage	AWS S3 integration for uploaded assets.
📬 Email Service	Nodemailer for password recovery and notifications.
🧱 ServiceResponse Model	Standard response structure across APIs.
🛡️ Error Handling Middleware	Centralized error management & logging.
🧩 Modular Architecture	Each API (auth, user, url) is self-contained for clarity and scalability.

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🏗️ Project Structure

📦 shortlink-backend/
├── src/
│   ├── api/
│   │   ├── auth/                # Authentication (JWT, login/register)
│   │   ├── url/                 # URL Shortening & QR
│   │   └── user/                # User management
│   ├── common/
│   │   ├── constant/            # Enums, messages, config
│   │   ├── middleware/          # Logger, rateLimiter, errorHandler
│   │   ├── models/              # Mongoose models & response objects
│   │   ├── services/            # Database & utility services
│   │   └── utils/               # Helper modules (JWT, email, QR, random, etc.)
│   ├── server.ts                # Express app setup
│   ├── index.ts                 # Entry point
│   └── type.d.ts                # Type declarations
├── Dockerfile
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
├── .env.example
└── README.md

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⚡ Quick Start

# 1. Install dependencies
pnpm install

# 2. Set up environment variables
cp .env.example .env

# 3. Run development server
pnpm dev

# 4. Build production bundle
pnpm build

# 5. Start production server
pnpm start

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🧩 API Overview

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/register	Register new user
POST	/auth/login	User login
POST	/auth/refresh-token	Refresh JWT token
GET	/auth/forgot-password	Send email forgot password
POST	/auth/reset-password	Reset password
POST	/auth/logout	Logout to the application
GET	/user/get-me	Get user information
POST	/	Create short URL
GET	/my-urls	Get list user’s URLs
PATCH	/:alias	Update URL
DELETE	/my-urls	Delete URL
POST	/qr-history	Save QR scan history
GET	/:alias	Resolve short link to destination
...	....	And more...

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🏗️ Architecture Overview

ShortLink Backend follows a Layered Architecture for better scalability:

• Controller Layer → Handles HTTP requests and responses.
• Service Layer → Core business logic and database operations.
• Model Layer → Mongoose schemas and document modeling.
• Middleware Layer → Security, validation, and logging.
• Utility Layer → Shared helpers (QR, JWT, Email, etc).

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🧪 Testing

The project supports integration tests with Vitest.

# Run all tests
pnpm test

# Run a specific test
pnpm test src/api/user/__tests__/user.integration.test.ts

💎 Author & Contact

👨‍💻 Project: ShortLink
📧 Contact: shortlink.tool@gmail.com
🌐 Website: https://shortlinkz.online

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Made by duyaivy with 💖.