Each URL that is submitted goes through a simple check for validity and/or added http:// before it to redirect successful. After that, a base 64 string is generated and added to a SQLite database with the corresponding URL that was submitted. The user is then given a short URL that is formatted as: WEBSITE_DOMAIN/token, the token being the base 64 string. Whenever this URL is visited the user will get redirected to the tokens corresponding URL in the database.

Run locally

Highly encouraged to create a python environment first.

Clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/ghostersk/flask_url_shortener.git

Move into the cloned folder and install the required libraries:

$ cd flask_url_shortener
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

After that run with:

$ python run.py

Visit the below URL to view the flask app:

127.0.0.1:5000

NOTE: When running locally all redirects will also be local.

Deploying

Before deploying, make sure to set the following environment variables:

$ export WEBSITE_DOMAIN=
$ export SECRET_KEY=
$ export DEBUG=
$ export SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=

If not they will default to the following values:

WEBSITE_DOMAIN=127.0.0.1:5000
SECRET_KEY=SECRET_KEY
DEBUG=true
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=sqlite:///database.db

License

This project is under the MIT license.