rebrandly-express-demo

Disclaimer: this project was generated using node-express-boilerplate package,
and simplified so as to constitute an example of a simple HTTP server
making use of the rebrandly-express middleware.

example output

Find below evidence of content served direcly along with a 200 OK response by this app (/, /home, /favicon.ico, /contact),
vs extra content (not found on the server) which is served via HTTP 302 redirection to Rebrandly servers (/product-hunt would be a branded link).

21:31:44 0|app  | 2022-01-15T21:31:44: info: Listening to port 3000
21:31:50 0|app  | 2022-01-15T21:31:50: info: ::1 - GET / 200 - 3.070 ms
21:31:50 0|app  | 2022-01-15T21:31:50: info: ::1 - GET /favicon.ico 200 - 1.896 ms
21:31:54 0|app  | 2022-01-15T21:31:54: info: ::1 - GET /home 200 - 0.644 ms
21:31:59 0|app  | 2022-01-15T21:31:59: info: ::1 - GET /contact 200 - 0.557 ms
21:32:03 0|app  | 2022-01-15T21:32:03: info: ::1 - GET /product-hunt 302 - 3.956 ms

---

steps to activate domain aliasing

1. Add your domain name to your Rebrandly account: this is the same domain name the server is running on. Make sure to specify that this is an "alias domain".
2. Take note of the alias domain name Rebrandly will generate for you
3. Install the Rebrandly middleware as a project dependency

> npm install rebrandly-express

4. Open /src/app.js file (or equivalennt in your server): this is where typically middlewares are declared and installed
5. Include the rebrandly middleware in the file as a dependency

const rebrandly = require('rebrandly-express');

6. Locate the generic route where the 404 responses are returned. Typically, it's the latest use command.

app.use((req, res, next) => {
  next(new ApiError(httpStatus.NOT_FOUND, 'Not found'));
});

7. Setup rebrandly middleware right before the 404 handler.
   Make sure to replace the alias in your config.js with the domain alias you noted in step 2.

...
app.use('/', routes);

app.use(rebrandly({ alias: config.rebrandly.alias }));

app.use((req, res, next) => {
  next(new ApiError(httpStatus.NOT_FOUND, 'Not found'));
});
...

8. Run the server and wait for Rebrandly to verify your domain via HTTP

9. Create Branded Links in Rebrandly and enjoy your server redirecting them.