Bitly - Link Shortening Website

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• API Documentation
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

Welcome to Bitly, a link shortening website built using Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB. This project allows users to shorten long URLs into more manageable and shareable links. Whether you want to share a link on social media, in an email, or in a text message, Bitly makes it easy.

Features

• Shorten long URLs into short, easy-to-share links.
• Customizable short link aliases.
• View detailed analytics for each shortened link, including click statistics.
• User account system for link management.
• Secure and scalable architecture.
• RESTful API for programmatic link shortening and retrieval.
• Mobile-friendly web interface.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have met the following requirements:

• Node.js installed (v14 or later).
• MongoDB installed and running.
• Git (optional but recommended for version control).

Installation

Follow these steps to set up the Bitly Clone project locally:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/bitly-clone.git
   
   cd bitly-clone
   
   npm install
   
   

2. Configuration

Before running the application, you need to configure your environment variables. Create a .env file in the project root directory and add the following variables:

  PORT=3000
  MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost/bitly_clone
  SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key

Usage

Before running the application, you need to configure your environment variables. Create a .env file in the project root directory and add the following variables:

  npm start

Visit http://localhost:3000 in your web browser to access the web interface.

API Documentation

You can use the Bitly Clone API to programmatically shorten and retrieve links. Refer to the API documentation for details on available endpoints and usage examples.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To contribute to this project, follow these steps:

Fork the repository.

Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix: git checkout -b feature-name. Make your changes and commit them: git commit -m "Description of changes". Push your branch to your forked repository: git push origin feature-name. Create a pull request to the main repository. Please follow the contribution guidelines for more details.

License

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