🤖 Shorten your links for free with a powerful interface!
I built this project to make a free URL shortener with a powerful interface. It is based on Python-Flask and SQLite3. It is a free and open-source project, and you can use it for free. It is hosted on PythonAnywhere, and you can try it out here.
It's not simple as writting a script. For this, I used some other libraries like to generate QR codes, flask-login for authentication and SQL. And it is also integrated with Gmail API, so it can verify emails.
Consider helping me and not making a spambot for my site, I cannot invest a bit on it. Try to support me, if you can!
Demo will be available soon.
You enter a long URL and we'll save it and give you a short URL. You can get a free QR code for your URL too, views counting, and automatically delete the URL when it reaches a amount of clicks or a date (limited clicks or expiry date). You can also have custom slugs on your URLs!
Start a new virtual environment and install all requirements
$ python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txtThen, you need to make a .env file in the project's root directory with the following content:
LOGIN_DB=./cache/login.db
dir_name=s
DATABASE=./cache/shorts.db
log_file_path=./cache/logs/shorts.log
SCHEMA_FILE=./login.sql
captchaSiteKey=dont try me
spoofDomain=http://127.0.0.1:5000/
secretKey=somethingbruh
- Login DB: path to login db file
- Dir Name: route for generated shorts like /short/shortIDHERE, where short is the dir
- Database: path to shorts db file
- Log File Path: path to log file
- Schema File: path to schema file for login db
- Captcha Site Key: Google Captcha Site Key (v2 Site Key)
- Spoof Domain: The domain to spoof, like to show the paths at this domain (for example, https://cutyoururl.tech/ would be the spoof domain for the path https://cutyoururl.tech/short/shortIDHERE)
- The secret key: used for server and browser to talk. If it is leaked, consider changing it to prevent peoples from abusing it. A certificate that says a user valid.
You can get the captcha site key from here
You need to add a credentials.json file in the project's root directory. You can get it from here. You can also use the token.pickle file to store the token, but it is not necessary.
Do not leak your
token.picklefile, it can allow someone to take over your account.
After you got your credentials, you can run the following command which will attempt to send a simple email. Gmail API will automatically ask you to login.
$ python3 test.py
Please visit this URL to authorize this application: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth
# Authorize it
# If you get a error Invalid TO Header, then you are doneThis error will occur if Python cannot open the DB under ./cache/login.db. If you deleted the cache folder, it is not a issue, you can re-make it.
In the few next updates I'll be trying to automatically make the shorts and login db from schema, however errors comes everywhere.
To re-make the login.db, you have to do:
$ sqlite3 login.db < login.sql # the login.db would be made
$ sqlite3 shorts.db < schema.sql # the shorts.db would be made
# move both to cache folder
$ mv ./login.db ./cache/
$ mv ./shorts.db ./cache/Make sure you have installed all dependencies too!
If you choose something like PythonAnywhere, first install all depends, then make cache db files, then:
- Add a credentials.json (the credentials must have your testing email as a testing user or available to your test account)
- Put the token.pickle file there: you cannot copy paste its binary, you can do all is: temporarily upload to a secure service, use curl to download and save it, then delete from online storage.
I have also faced several issues during hosting but still made it work.
- @ashishagarwal2023 - Idea & Initial work
- @N3RDIUM - Leaving me at the half back-end of login 🤣
See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.
- Hat tip to anyone whose code was used
- Inspiration
- References