GoLinks (in NodeJS)

A small NodeJS app that provide golinks type functionality locally by redirecting configurable URL paths to a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• npm (v6 or higher)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/AndrewZurn/golinks-nodejs.git
cd golinks-nodejs

2. Install the dependencies:

npm install

Configuration

The URL paths and their corresponding FQDNs are configured in the golinks.json file. This file can be dynamically updated (not requiring a restart of the server for changes to the config to take affect and be used by your browser when opening new/updated GoLinks).

Example:

{
  "/path1": "https://example1.com",
  "/path2": "https://example2.com",
  "/path3": "https://example3.com",
  "/path4/subpath1": "https://example4.com"
}

Simply update this file to specify the path (key) you would like to have the server redirect your browser to when you enter "go/(key)" into your browser bar.

Usage

To start the server, run:

npm start

The server will start on port 80. You can change the port by modifying the port variable in golinks.js. You'll also need to update your /etc/hosts file (instructions below) to complete the setup. Finally, if you would like this application to run at startup, there is a section below to help enable that as well.

Updating /etc/hosts to Redirect to Node App

In order to get the app functioning in your local environment, we need to update /etc/hosts so that any go/path/to/app URL that is opened is properly redirected to this Node app.

Update /etc/hosts

sudo vim /etc/hosts

Add the following line to the bottom of the file:

127.0.0.1 go

Starting the Golinks Node App at Startup

We can start the app using pm2 (Process Manager for Node Apps) at startup time to ensure that the app will be up and running anytime we reboot.

Install pm2 (https://pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/startup/):

npm i -g pm2

Setup your app to run:

pm2 start golinks.js

Enable pm2 to run at startup (following the output prompt to run an additional command to ensure it registers with your systems launch controller):

pm2 startup

And finally save the current apps pm2 is managing (so it restarts them after a reboot):

pm2 save

To restart your apps, you can use the following command:

pm2 restart golinks

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60699738/how-to-start-node-js-server-on-each-system-boot-in-mac-and-windows for more details.