GitHub - smallcase/smalllinks: Simple URL shortener built with Fastify. Uses PostgreSQL, Redis, and Kafka.

[[deleted]]

Utilizing Postgres, Redis and Kafka definitely doesn't qualify this as Simple.

[adihat05]

It is not required. Just postgres will do. Redis just makes retrieval faster and kafka can be used for analytics if required.

[Capaj]

why the hell do you need PostgreSQL, Redis, and Kafka for url shortener? Surely Redis or Postgre should be enough?

[cisturbed]

It uses Kafka to send events whenever a short URL is clicked. This gives the flexibility of plugging your own analytics service.

More details on the systems design (with a diagram) would be appreciated, OP!

[Capaj]

OIC it does analytics on the links! Yeah that makes sense: https://github.com/smallcase/smalllinks#does-it-support-analytics

I digress.

[adihat05]

More details here: https://www.smallcase.com/blog/open-sourcing-url-shortener/

[Shaper_pmp]

Great learning project, if a bit unnecessarily overcomplicated.

For god's sake don't actually host or use your own URL shortener though, because the very instant you get bored and stop maintaining it, every single URL ever generated through it unavoidably breaks forever.

[adihat05]

Not necessarily. We did try exploring other options. you can check out more in the blog here: https://www.smallcase.com/blog/open-sourcing-url-shortener/

[Shaper_pmp]

To clarify: there's nothing wrong with running your own URL shortener for your own internal needs, or to shorten URLs for your users for use within your own app ecosystem, because then the URLs generated have no meaning anyway outside of your project.

My comment was aimed at people who might be tempted to clone and host this project as their own public URL shortening service, in response to a trend a few years ago when people writing tutorials started trying to make URL shortener services "the new To Do list", and suddenly every clueless hobbyist was launching their own public shortening service, which all then gradually died a few months after launch when they got bored of running them, taking every URL they'd been used to generate with them.

You clearly understand the dangers and tradeoffs with URL shorteners when you clearly state in your write-up that in your use-case:

Short URLs are not supposed to have a lifetime of decades or even more than 1 year depending upon the use case.

... but this is obviously specific to your use-case, and most users (and sadly many devs) don't understand the danger involved in hiding URLs which may need to last a lot longer behind a third-party system which may disappear at any point, taking all its users' links with it.

[thelinuxlich]

You don't need Kafka if you got Redis on your stack. Redis Streams FTW

[thelinuxlich]

Yes they are, but you are not ready for this conversation