Shortify is a work-in-progress URL shortener built using Spring MVC and Thymeleaf, designed to go beyond simple redirection by capturing meaningful visit analytics. The application demonstrates backend craftsmanship, modular design, and real-world deployment readiness.
Github repo : https://github.com/Amine2000s/Shortify-URL-Shortner
This is an actively developed project. The MVP is functional, and new capabilities are being added iteratively, including authentication, Dockerization, and more sophisticated analytics.
- Java 17
- Spring Boot (MVC, Validation, Web, Data JPA)
- Thymeleaf
- MySQL
- Lombok
- Device detection via User-Agent
- IP-based GeoIP (basic lookup)
- 🔗 Shorten long URLs via a simple UI
- 📋 Dashboard-style feedback with Thymeleaf modals
- 📊 Analytics:
- Time of visit
- Device type
- Visitor country (basic GeoIP)
- ✂️ Copy-to-clipboard for short URLs
- 📁 Custom hash-based short link generation (see below)
Authentication will be added using session-based login via Spring Security, instead of stateless JWT. This aligns better with Thymeleaf and server-side rendered workflows.
The app will be Dockerized to support deployment via containers and integrated into a CI/CD pipeline. MySQL will run in a separate container.
A new statistics dashboard will provide:
- Charts (visits over time, device split)
- Filters by date, device, and country
- Pagination of visit records
Shortify uses a deterministic hash-based strategy to create unique short links.
- User identifier (e.g., username or session token)
- Domain of the original URL
- Timestamp of the shortening request
These are combined, hashed (e.g., SHA-256), then encoded (e.g., base62) into a short code:
Inputs:
- Username: amine2000
- URL: https://example.com/blog/post-123
- Time: 2025-06-20T14:12:35Z
→ Base String:
amine2000-example.com-20250620141235
→ SHA-256 + Base62
→ Code: BskX9a
→ Resulting URL:
https://shortify.dev/BskX9a
This ensures:
- Unique links for each user + URL + time combo
- Non-sequential, hard-to-guess codes
- Avoidance of UUIDs or ID leaks
🔄 How to Run Locally
git clone https://github.com/Amine2000s/Shortify-URL-Shortner.git
cd Shortify-URL-Shortner
./mvnw spring-boot:run
Then open: http://localhost:8085/Dashboard or http://localhost:8085/Home| Feature | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication (Sessions) | ✅Done | Simpler and better for Thymeleaf apps |
| Docker support | ✅Done | MySQL + app containerization |
| Analytics panel w/ charts | 🔧 On going | Charts.js or similar with device filters |
| Redis caching | ⚪ Optional | For performance at scale |
| Image uploads (preview) | ⚪ Idea | Optional for visualizing content |
| Pagination | 🟡 Planned | For large visit logs |
| Nginx + VPS deployment | ⚪ Planned | For production deployment |