URL Shortener (Flask)

A simple Python Flask URL shortener with SQLite storage, custom alias validation, click analytics, and a REST API.

Setup

1. Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv .venv
   .\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

2. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Run the app:

   python app.py

4. Open http://127.0.0.1:5000 in your browser.

Features

• Shorten URLs with a generated code.
• Optional custom alias support.
• Click counting for each short link.
• Recent links view with analytics.
• REST API for programmatic creation and inspection.

API

Create a short URL

POST http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/shorten

Request JSON:

{
  "long_url": "https://example.com/page",
  "custom_alias": "example-link"
}

Response JSON:

{
  "code": "example-link",
  "long_url": "https://example.com/page",
  "short_url": "http://127.0.0.1:5000/example-link",
  "clicks": 0
}

Inspect a short URL

GET http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/urls/<code>

Response JSON includes code, long_url, clicks, and short_url.

Deploying to AWS

This project includes a Dockerfile and Procfile, so it can run on AWS Elastic Beanstalk with Docker or the Python platform.

Option 1: Elastic Beanstalk (Docker)

1. Install and configure the AWS CLI and EB CLI.

2. Initialize the app:

   eb init -p docker url-shortener-app

3. Create and deploy an environment:

   eb create url-shortener-prod
   eb deploy

4. Open the deployed site:

   eb open

Option 2: Elastic Beanstalk (Python)

If you prefer the Python platform, Elastic Beanstalk can use requirements.txt, app.py, and Procfile directly.

1. Initialize with Python:

   eb init -p python-3.12 url-shortener-app

2. Deploy as above.

Option 3: ECS / Fargate

1. Build and push the Docker image to ECR.
2. Create an ECS service with the image.
3. Expose port 5000 via a load balancer.

Important note

• urls.db is a local SQLite file. For production, use a networked database like Amazon RDS or DynamoDB if you need durability across container restarts and multiple instances.

Notes

• Custom alias validation: 3-32 characters, letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.
• Data is stored in urls.db by default.