URL Shortener - Interview Exercise

This is a minimal URL shortener built with Laravel 12 and FilamentPHP 4 based on the starter repository provided for the interview.

Features

1. Public URL shortener

• GET /
  Displays a minimal HTML form where anyone can submit a long URL.

• POST /
  Validates the submitted URL and returns a shortened URL.

Validation rules:

• required
• url (basic URL syntax)
• active_url (domain must exist, DNS-level check)
• max:2048

If the URL already exists in the database, the existing short code is reused. Otherwise, a new unique short code is generated.

• GET /r/{code}
  Looks up the original URL by its short code and redirects to it using redirect()->away().

2. Short URL storage

Model: App\Models\ShortUrl

• Table: short_urls
• Columns:
  • id
  • code (unique, short string)
  • url (original URL)
  • created_at, updated_at

The model contains a helper method generateUniqueCode() that generates a random 6-character code and ensures uniqueness in the database.

3. Filament admin panel

• Admin URL: /admin
• Default user: admin@localhost / abcd1234 (created from the provided setup script or artisan command)
• Resource: App\Filament\Resources\ShortUrls\ShortUrlResource

The resource provides:

• List view of all short URLs (ID, code, original URL, created_at)
• Create / Edit forms with the same validation as the public form:
  • required, url, activeUrl(), max length
• Delete & bulk delete actions

4. Tests

Feature tests: tests/Feature/UrlShortenerTest.php

Covered scenarios:

1. A long URL submitted on / creates a short_urls record and redirects back to / with the shortened URL in the session.
2. GET /r/{code} redirects to the original URL stored for that code.
3. An unknown short code returns a 404 response.

All tests can be executed with: php artisan test.

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5. Running the application

The repository already contains a run.sh helper script as provided in the exercise.

Using the script (Linux / macOS)

First install PHP dependencies:

• composer install

Then run:

• ./run.sh

The script will:

• copy .env.example to .env
• generate the application key
• run the database migrations
• create the admin user (admin@localhost / abcd1234)
• start the development server

Manual steps (for reference, e.g. on Windows)

• composer install
• cp .env.example .env
  Configure the database (SQLite is used in this implementation).
• php artisan key:generate
• php artisan migrate
• php artisan make:filament-user --name=admin --email=admin@localhost --password=abcd1234
• php artisan serve

Then open:

• Public URL shortener: http://localhost:8000/
• Admin panel: http://localhost:8000/admin

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Possible extensions (not required for the exercise)

• Expiration / soft delete for short URLs
• Click statistics per code (number of redirects)
• Rate limiting or spam protection on the public form
• Configurable short code length or human-readable codes