Deploy

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Getting Started

Build and run the URL Shortener in minutes.

Prerequisites

Tool Minimum Version
Java JDK 26+
Maven 3.9.9+
Git any recent version

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/svenruppert/url-shortener.git
cd url-shortener

2. Build All Modules

mvn clean package -DskipTests

This builds four modules in order:

  • urlshortener-core — domain model & utilities
  • urlshortener-server — REST API + redirect server
  • urlshortener-client — Java client SDK
  • urlshortener-ui — Vaadin Flow WAR

3. Start the Server

cd urlshortener-server
java -jar target/urlshortener-server-*.jar

The server starts two listeners:

Endpoint Port Purpose
Admin API 9090 Create, manage, export links
Redirect 8081 Public short-link resolution 
curl -X POST http://localhost:9090/api/shorten \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "originalUrl": "https://github.com/svenruppert/url-shortener",
    "alias": "oss-project"
  }'

Response:

{
  "shortCode": "oss-project",
  "originalUrl": "https://github.com/svenruppert/url-shortener",
  "active": true,
  "createdAt": "2025-01-01T12:00:00Z"
}

curl -L http://localhost:8081/oss-project
# → 302 redirect to https://github.com/svenruppert/url-shortener

6. Launch the Vaadin UI (optional)

Deploy the WAR to a Jetty 12 server:

cp urlshortener-ui/target/ROOT-*.war /path/to/jetty/webapps/ROOT.war
cd /path/to/jetty && java -jar start.jar

Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser.

Persistence (optional)

By default, all data is stored in-memory and lost on restart. To enable persistent storage with EclipseStore, set the system property:

java -Dstorage.mode=eclipsestore \
     -Dstorage.path=/var/urlshortener/data \
     -jar target/urlshortener-server-*.jar

Next Steps