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+# What is it?
+A simple selfhosted URL shortener with no name because naming is hard
+
+## But why another URL shortener?
+I've looked at a couple popular URL shorteners, however they either have
+unnecessary features, or they didn't have all the features I wanted.
+
+# Features
+- Shortens URLs of any length to a fixed length, randomly generated string
+- (Optional) Allows you to specify the shortened URL instead of the generated
+  one (Missing in a surprising number of alternatives)
+- Opening the fixed length URL in your browser will instantly redirect you
+  to the correct long URL (you'd think that's a standard feature, but
+  apparently it's not)
+- Provides a simple API for adding new short links
+- Links are stored in a plaintext CSV file
+- Available as a Docker container (there is no image on docker hub _yet_)
+- Backend written in Java using [Spark Java](http://sparkjava.com/), frontend
+  written in plain HTML and vanilla JS, using [Pure CSS](https://purecss.io/)
+  for styling
+
+# Planned features
+- An actual name
+- Deleting links using API and frontend
+- Code cleanup
+- Better deduplication
+- Official Docker Hub image
+
+# Usage
+Clone this repository
+```
+git clone https://github.com/draganczukp/url
+```
+## Building from source
+Gradle 6.x.x and JDK 11 are required. Other versions are not tested
+1. Build the `.jar` file
+```
+gradle build --no-daemon
+```
+The `--no-daemon` option means that gradle should exit as soon as the build is
+finished. Without it, gradle would still be running in the background
+in order to speed up future builds.
+
+2. Run it
+```
+java -jar build/libs/url.jar
+```
+3. Navigate to `http://localhost:4567` in your browser, add links as you wish.
+
+## Running with docker
+### `docker run` method
+1. Build the image
+```
+docker build . -t url:1.0
+```
+2. Run the image
+```
+docker run -p 4567:4567 -d url:1.0 
+```
+2.a Make the CSV file available to host
+```
+touch ./urls.csv
+docker run -p 4567:4567 \
+	-e file.location=/urls.csv \
+	-v ./urls.csv:/urls.csv \
+	-d url:1.0
+```
+## `docker-compose`
+There is a sample `docker-compose.yml` file in this repository. You can use it
+as a base, modifying it as needed. Run it with
+```
+docker-compose up -d --build
+```