URL-Short

A sleek, efficient, and user-friendly URL shortener with a minimalist design and enhanced security features.

Live Demo : sh.mrbean.dev

Features

• Clean, Minimalist UI: A modern, responsive design that works well on all devices.
• Efficient Shortening: Quickly generate short URLs for long web addresses.
• Copy to Clipboard: Easily copy shortened URLs with a single click.
• Duplicate Detection: Avoids creating multiple short URLs for the same long URL.
• reCAPTCHA Integration: Prevents spam and abuse through Google's reCAPTCHA service.
• API Support: Shortening URLs programmatically through a simple API.
• Animations: Smooth, subtle animations enhance the user experience.

Tech Stack

• PHP 7.4+
• HTML5
• CSS3
• JavaScript (ES6+)
• Google reCAPTCHA v2
• Font Awesome 6.1.1

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/url-shortener.git
   cd url-shortener
   

2. Configure your web server (e.g., Apache, Nginx) to serve the project directory.

3. Create a urls.json file in the project root with write permissions:

   touch urls.json
   chmod 666 urls.json
   

4. Sign up for Google reCAPTCHA and get your site key and secret key.

5. Update the configuration in index.php:

   • Set the $base_url to your domain.
   • Replace YOUR_RECAPTCHA_SITE_KEY and YOUR_RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY with your actual reCAPTCHA keys.

6. Ensure PHP has write permissions for the project directory.

Usage

Web Interface

1. Visit the URL shortener website.
2. Enter a long URL in the input field.
3. Complete the reCAPTCHA challenge.
4. Click the shorten button.
5. Copy the generated short URL.

API Usage

To shorten a URL programmatically, send a GET request to:

https://yourdomain.com/index.php?url=https://long-url-to-shorten.com

The API will return a JSON response:

{
  "short_url": "https://yourdomain.com/abcdef"
}

Customization

• Modify styles.css to change the appearance of the URL shortener.
• Update script.js to add or modify client-side functionality.

Security Considerations

• Regularly update PHP and all dependencies.
• Use HTTPS to encrypt traffic between users and your server.
• Implement rate limiting to prevent API abuse.
• Regularly backup the urls.json file.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

Contact

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at @mrbeandev or open an issue in this repository.