SnapURL: The Beginner-Friendly URL Shortener

SnapURL is an open-source URL shortener web application and chrome-extension. It simplifies the process of converting long URLs into short and shareable links.

Features

User signup and login.
Email verification for added security.
Password reset via email.
Robust password hashing with Bcrypt.
Automated email notifications for account creation and password resets.
URL shortening with randomly generated 10-character strings.
Visit count tracking for shortened URLs.
User-specific lists of generated URLs.
Deletion of shortened URLs.
Secure API authentication using JSON Web Tokens (JWT).
Express Rate Limit for API rate limiting.
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) enabled.
API documentation powered by Swagger.
Export Generated URLs to Excel file.
Chrome extension for URL shortening.

Future Plans

We have exciting plans to enhance SnapURL in the future, making it even more robust and user-friendly. Our upcoming features include:

User Profile Enhancements

User Profile Visibility: Choose whether your profile is public or private.
User Profile Page: Display user's name, profile picture, bio, and a summary of their URL activity.
User Analytics: View statistics for the links shared, including total clicks and views.

Advanced URL Management

Categories for Short URLs: Organize shortened links into categories for better management.
Bundled URLs: Group multiple URLs into a single bundled link for easy sharing.
Password Protection: Add password protection to specific URLs for added security.

Analytics and Reporting

User Analytics Dashboard: Provide users with an analytics dashboard to monitor their URL performance.
User Notifications: Notify users when their URLs reach a certain number of clicks or other milestones.
Link Expiry: Allow users to set an expiration date for their URLs.

Integration and Sharing

Browser Extensions: Develop browser extensions for quick URL shortening and management.
Custom Domains: Enable users to use custom domains for branded short URLs.

Enhanced User Experience

User Feedback System: Implement a feedback system to collect user opinions and suggestions.
Mobile Apps
Multi-Language Support: Localize SnapURL for users worldwide.
Dark Mode: Introduce a dark mode option for the user interface.

Additional Feature Ideas

QR Code Generation: Generate QR codes for shortened URLs for easy mobile sharing.
Social Media Sharing: Add one-click sharing to popular social media platforms.
Link Preview Thumbnails: Display link previews with thumbnails for better user experience.
Bookmark Management: Help users organize and manage their bookmarked URLs.
URL Commenting: Allow users to add comments to URLs for context.

Tech Stack

Backend

Node.js
Express.js
MongoDB
Bcrypt
Cors
EJS (for email templates)
Express-rate-limit
JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
Mongoose
Nanoid
Passport
Passport-jwt
Swagger UI Express
Yamljs

Frontend

React.js
Axios
Prettier
React-bootstrap
Material-ui
React-dom
React-icons
React-router-dom
React-toastify

Deployment

The Node.js backend is hosted on the AWS EC2 running Ubuntu and managed using PM2. API Documentation
The React frontend is hosted on Netlify. The URL for the frontend is: https://app.snapurl.in
The API documentation is generated using Swagger. The URL for the API documentation is: https://snapurl.in/doc

Prerequisites

Node.js and npm installed on your local machine
A MongoDB database

Getting Started

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/DhananjayThomble/URL-Shortener-App.git

for backend:

i. Goto the backend directory:

cd backend

ii. Install the dependencies:

npm install

iii. Create a .env file in the backend directory and add the following environment variables:

DB_URL=<your-mongodb-database-url>
JWT_SECRET=<your-jwt-secret>
SESSION_SECRET=<your-session-secret>
PORT=4001
BASE_URL=http://localhost:4001
SHORT_URL_PREFIX=http://localhost:4001/u 
EMAIL_HOST=<your-email-host>, e.g. smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_PORT=<your-email-port>, e.g. 587
EMAIL_HOST_USER=<your-email-host-user>, e.g. john@gmail.com
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD=<your-email-host-password>, e.g. john123
FRONTEND_URL=<your-frontend-webapp-url>

Example .env file:

DB_URL=mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@<cluster-url>/<database-name>?retryWrites=true&w=majority
JWT_SECRET=secret
SESSION_SECRET=secret
PORT=4001
BASE_URL=http://localhost:4001
SHORT_URL_PREFIX=http://localhost:4001/u
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_HOST_USER=john@gmail.com
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD=john123
FRONTEND_URL=https://app.snapurl.in

You can get your MongoDB database URL from here.

You can get your Email Host, Email Port, Email Host User and Email Host Password from your email service provider. You can even use your Gmail account for this. If you have enabled 2-step verification for your gmail account, you will need to generate an app password. you can find more information about this here.

Contact me if you need help with this.

iv. Start the backend server:

npm run dev

for frontend:

i. Goto the frontend directory:

cd frontend