Simple URL Shortener

A basic URL shortener built with Express.js, MongoDB (Mongoose), and a vanilla HTML/CSS/JS frontend.

Features

• POST endpoint to shorten a long URL
• Stores the mapping (original URL <-> short code) in MongoDB
• GET route that redirects a short code to the original URL
• Simple frontend to submit URLs and view recent links + click counts

Project Structure

url-shortener/
  backend/
    controllers/urlcontroller.js
    models/url.js
    routes/urlroutes.js
    server.js
    package.json
    .env
  frontend/
    index.html
    style.css
    script.js

Setup & Run

1. Install dependencies

   cd backend
   npm install

2. Configure environment variables The .env file already has sensible local defaults:

   PORT=5000
   MONGO_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/urlshortener
   BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000
   

   If you're using MongoDB Compass / local mongod, this default MONGO_URI will work as-is as long as your local MongoDB server is running on the default port (27017).

3. Start MongoDB (if not already running)

   mongod

   Or just open MongoDB Compass and connect to mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017 — that's the same database the backend will write to, so you can watch the urlshortener database / urls collection appear and update live as you shorten links.

4. Run the server

   npm start

   or for auto-restart on changes during development:

   npm run dev

5. Open the app Visit http://localhost:5000 in your browser. The Express server also serves the frontend, so no separate frontend server is needed.

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/shorten	Body: { "originalUrl": "..." } → returns short URL
GET	/:shortCode	Redirects to the original URL
GET	/api/urls	Returns list of all shortened URLs

Notes

• Short codes are 6 characters, generated with nanoid.
• If you shorten the same URL twice, the existing short code is returned instead of creating a duplicate.