URL Shortener

A modern, full-featured URL shortener built with PHP, MySQL, and Bootstrap 5. Create short links, track clicks, and manage your URLs through a user-friendly dashboard.

Features

• 🚀 Quick Shortening - Shorten any URL in seconds
• 👤 User Accounts - Register and login to manage your links
• 📊 Dashboard - View stats: total links, total clicks, top link, and quota
• 🔗 Link Management - View, copy, and delete your shortened URLs
• 📈 Click Tracking - Track how many times your links are clicked
• ⚙️ Settings - Change your username and password
• 🔒 Secure - Password hashing with PHP's password_hash()
• ✉️ Email Verification - OTP-based email verification for registration
• 📱 Responsive Design - Works on desktop and mobile devices
• 🔗 Clean URLs - No .php extensions in URLs

Tech Stack

• Backend: PHP 8.1+
• Database: MySQL
• Frontend: HTML5, Bootstrap 5, JavaScript
• Server: Apache with mod_rewrite

Directory Structure

url-shortener/
├── .htaccess              # URL rewriting rules
├── index.php              # Root redirect
├── README.md              # This file
├── api/
│   ├── shorten.php        # URL shortening API
│   └── delete_url.php     # URL deletion API
├── assets/
│   ├── css/style.css      # Custom styles
│   └── js/script.js       # Frontend JavaScript
├── auth/
│   ├── login.php          # User login
│   ├── logout.php         # User logout
│   ├── register.php       # User registration
│   ├── forgot-password.php # Password recovery request
│   ├── reset-password.php  # Password reset with OTP
│   └── verify-email.php   # Email verification
├── config/
│   └── db.php             # Database connection
├── includes/
│   └── navbar.php         # Shared navigation
├── pages/
│   ├── index.php          # Home page (public shortener)
│   ├── redirect.php       # Short URL redirect handler
│   └── terms.php          # Terms & Privacy Policy
└── users/
    ├── dashboard.php      # User dashboard
    └── settings.php       # User settings

Installation

1. Requirements

• PHP 8.1 or higher
• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10+
• Apache with mod_rewrite enabled
• Composer (optional, for dependencies)

2. Clone the Repository

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

3. Configure Database

Create a MySQL database and import the schema:

# Login to MySQL
mysql -u root -p

# Create database
CREATE DATABASE url;

# Use the database
USE url;

# Create tables (run the SQL from db.sql or manually)

4. Database Schema

-- Users table
CREATE TABLE users (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    username VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    email VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    password VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    otp VARCHAR(6) DEFAULT NULL,
    otp_expire DATETIME DEFAULT NULL,
    is_verified TINYINT(1) DEFAULT 0,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

-- URLs table
CREATE TABLE urls (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    user_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
    long_url TEXT NOT NULL,
    short_code VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    clicks INT DEFAULT 0,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);

-- Create index for faster lookups
CREATE INDEX idx_short_code ON urls(short_code);
CREATE INDEX idx_user_id ON urls(user_id);

5. Configure Application

Edit config/db.php with your database credentials:

$dbHost = 'localhost';
$dbUsername = 'root';
$dbPassword = 'your_password'; // Your MySQL password
$dbName = 'url';

Update BASE_URL in config/db.php to match your domain:

define('BASE_URL', 'https://yourdomain.com/');

6. Configure Email (Optional)

For email verification, configure SMTP settings in your PHP configuration or use a library like PHPMailer. Currently, the system uses a basic mail() function - for production, consider using a transactional email service.

7. Set File Permissions

# Ensure config directory is writable for any dynamic configs
chmod 755 config/

8. Start the Server

For local development:

# Using PHP built-in server
php -S localhost:8000

# Or using XAMPP/WAMP, place in htdocs folder

Visit http://localhost:8000 (or your configured URL)

Usage

For Visitors (Unauthenticated)

1. Visit the home page
2. Paste your long URL
3. Click "Shorten"
4. Copy your shortened URL

For Registered Users

1. Register - Create an account with email verification
2. Login - Access your personalized dashboard
3. Shorten Links - Use the quick shorten form on your dashboard
4. View Stats - See total links, clicks, and top-performing links
5. Manage Links - Copy or delete your shortened URLs
6. Settings - Update username or change password

Clean URLs

The application uses Apache's mod_rewrite for clean URLs:

URL	Maps To
/	Home page
/login	Login page
/register	Registration page
/dashboard	User dashboard
/settings	User settings
/terms	Terms & Privacy page
/abc123	Redirect to original URL

API Endpoints

Shorten URL

POST /api/shorten.php
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

long_url=https://example.com/very/long/url

Response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "short_url": "https://localhost/abc123",
  "code": "abc123"
}

Delete URL

POST /api/delete_url.php
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

id=1

Response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "URL deleted successfully"
}

Customization

Adding Custom Short Code Length

In api/shorten.php, modify the $length variable:

$length = 6; // Default 6 characters

Changing Maximum Links Per User

In users/dashboard.php, update the quota check:

// Currently set to 100 links
<span class="badge <?php echo $link_count >= 100 ? 'bg-danger' : 'bg-success'; ?>"><?php echo $link_count; ?>/100</span>

Styling

Edit assets/css/style.css for custom styles. The main customizations include:

• Hero section background
• Card styling
• Shortener box styling
• Button styles

Security Considerations

• Passwords are hashed using password_hash() with PASSWORD_DEFAULT
• Input sanitization with htmlspecialchars() to prevent XSS
• Prepared statements for all database queries to prevent SQL injection
• Session-based authentication
• Email verification required for new accounts
• OTP expiration for password reset

Production Deployment

1. Enable HTTPS - Always use SSL/TLS in production
2. Update BASE_URL - Set to your production domain
3. Secure Database - Use strong database credentials
4. Email Configuration - Set up proper SMTP for emails
5. Error Handling - Disable display_errors in production
6. File Permissions - Restrict write permissions appropriately

Example production php.ini settings:

display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
error_log = /var/log/php/errors.log

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Bootstrap 5 for the UI framework
• Bootstrap Icons for icons
• PHP for the backend
• MySQL for the database

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Made with ❤️ for the community