URL Shortener

This is a simple URL shortener web application built with Flask and MongoDB.

Introduction

This application allows users to shorten long URLs into shorter, more manageable links. It's useful for sharing URLs in a concise manner, especially on platforms with character limits like Twitter.

Features

Shorten long URLs into unique short URLs.
Redirect users from short URLs to their original long URLs.
Uses MongoDB to store URL mappings.

Prerequisites

Before running the application, ensure you have the following installed:

Python 3.x
Flask
pymongo
MongoDB Atlas account (or local MongoDB server)

Installation

Clone this repository to your local machine.

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/URL-Shortener.git

Install dependencies using pip.
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

Configuration

Replace the MongoDB connection string in app.py with your own.

# Replace the connection string below with your MongoDB connection string
client = MongoClient('mongodb+srv://username:password@your-cluster-url/')

Usage

Run the Flask application.
```
python app.py
```
Access the application in your web browser at http://localhost:5000.
Enter a long URL in the provided form and submit to get a shortened URL.
Use the generated short URL to redirect to the original long URL.

Notes

The application uses a randomly generated string of characters as the short URL key.
Duplicate short URLs are avoided by checking if the generated key already exists in the database.

Disclaimer

This application is intended for educational purposes only.
Ensure proper security measures are implemented before deploying to production environments.