Snip

Snip is a full-stack URL management platform for creating, sharing, and analyzing shortened links. It combines Redis-powered rate limiting, URL safety validation, link expiration, QR code generation, and detailed analytics to provide a secure and feature-rich link management experience.

URL shortening services need to balance simplicity with security, abuse prevention, and meaningful analytics. Basic shorteners often lack protection against excessive requests and malicious URLs, while providing limited insight into how links are being used. Snip was built to address these challenges by combining secure link creation, configurable expiration, abuse prevention, and detailed click analytics in a single platform.

• Short URL Generation with Custom Alias Support
• Redis-Powered Rate Limiting
• URL Safety Check and Validation
• Link Expiry and Automatic Invalidation
• Enhanced Click Analytics and Traffic Insights
• QR Code Generation for Shortened Links
• Click-Through Preview Page
• Input Sanitisation and Validation

• Implemented Redis-based rate limiting for distributed and persistent request control, replacing the original in-memory approach.
• Built URL safety checks and hardened input validation and sanitisation to protect against malicious or malformed URLs.
• Implemented custom alias generation and configurable link expiration for greater control over shortened URLs.
• Developed enhanced analytics to capture referrers, geographic information, browser types, and device breakdowns.
• Integrated QR code generation to provide an alternative way of sharing shortened links.
• Added a click-through preview page allowing users to review link information before being redirected.
• Built RESTful APIs using Flask with PostgreSQL for URL and click-event persistence.
• Developed an interactive React and Chart.js dashboard for visualizing link performance and traffic patterns.
• Containerized the application using Docker and Docker Compose for consistent development and deployment.

• Designed and developed the complete URL management platform using Flask, React, PostgreSQL, and Redis.
• Designed and implemented the Redis-based rate limiting system for scalable request control.
• Developed URL safety checks, input sanitisation, validation, custom aliases, and link expiry functionality.
• Built the analytics pipeline for tracking clicks, referrers, geographic data, browsers, and devices.
• Implemented QR code generation and the click-through preview experience.
• Developed the analytics dashboard using React and Chart.js.
• Containerized and structured the application for maintainability and scalable deployment.