URL Shortener 🌐

A web application that shortens long URLs into compact, easy-to-share links. This project includes user authentication, click tracking, and an admin portal for managing statistics and user roles.

✨ Features

✂️ URL shortening
🛠️ Custom short URL creation
📊 Click tracking for each shortened URL
🔐 User authentication and role management
⚙️ Admin portal for statistics and user management
🕒 3-day history retention for URL clicks
🗑️ Ability to clear history (for users and admins)
🧹 Admin capability to delete any entry

🛠️ Technologies Used

Node.js
Express.js
MongoDB Atlas
EJS (Embedded JavaScript templating)
JavaScript
CSS
JWT for authentication

📦 Dependencies

{
  "dependencies": {
    "cookie-parser": "^1.4.6",
    "dotenv": "^16.4.5",
    "ejs": "^3.1.10",
    "express": "^4.19.2",
    "jsonwebtoken": "^9.0.2",
    "mongoose": "^8.3.0",
    "nodemon": "^3.1.0",
    "shortid": "^2.2.16",
    "sweetalert": "^2.1.2"
  }
}

🚀 Installation

Clone the repository.
Run npm install to install dependencies.
Set up your MongoDB Atlas cluster and add the connection string to your .env file.
Run npm start to start the server.

💡 Usage

Navigate to the homepage.
Enter a long URL in the input field.
Click "Shorten" to generate a short URL.
Copy and share the shortened URL.

🔧 Admin Portal

Access the admin portal to:

View overall statistics.
Manage user roles.
View and delete individual URL entries.
Clear history for all users.

⚠️ Disclaimer

The length of the shortened URL ID may vary depending on the domain being used. While we aim for 8-character IDs, the actual length might be different to ensure uniqueness across the system.

🤝 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

ashesbloom/URL_Shortener