URLify – Smart URL Shortener & Analytics Platform

A production-style URL shortener and analytics platform inspired by Bitly, built with performance, scalability, and real-time analytics in mind.

Screenshots

Dashboard Overview

Production-style analytics dashboard with real-time metrics, click tracking, geographic insights, browser analytics, and performance monitoring.

Overview – Metrics & Charts

Shows total clicks, unique visitors, redirect performance, click analytics, and geographic analytics.

Overview – Traffic & Performance Insights

Shows traffic sources, browser analytics, OS analytics, and top-performing links.

Overview – Recent Activity Feed

Shows real-time click activity with browser, device, region, and traffic source tracking.

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Link Management

Comprehensive link management with search, filtering, sorting, editing, QR generation, and link actions.

Links Dashboard

Shows searchable link management with filtering and analytics access.

Links Table View

Horizontal scrollable table for managing large link datasets.

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Individual Link Analytics

Detailed analytics for a specific shortened URL including click trends, geographic insights, and traffic breakdowns.

Link Analytics – Metrics Overview

Shows click statistics, visitors, redirect performance, and top region for a specific link.

Link Analytics – Charts & Geographic Insights

Shows click analytics graph and geographic analytics for an individual link.

Link Analytics – Traffic Breakdown

Shows browser analytics, OS analytics, and traffic source insights.

Link Analytics – Recent Click Activity

Shows recent click feed for a specific shortened URL.

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Settings & Preferences

User settings for account management, authentication, preferences, exports, and privacy.

Account & Security Settings

Manage profile details and password updates.

Preferences & Data Privacy

Configure link preferences, notifications, auto refresh, and exports.

Danger Zone

Secure account deletion and irreversible actions.

Key Features

Smart URL Management

• Custom short aliases
• URL expiration support
• Active/inactive link management
• QR code generation and download

Real-Time Analytics

• Total clicks and unique visitors
• Browser, OS, and device analytics
• Region-based analytics
• Traffic source tracking
• Real-time click updates using WebSockets

Performance Optimizations

• Redis caching for low-latency redirects
• Asynchronous analytics processing
• Optimized PostgreSQL queries
• Rate limiting to prevent abuse

Security

• JWT cookie-based authentication
• Password hashing with bcrypt
• Protected routes and middleware

Tech Stack

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• PostgreSQL (Neon)
• Redis (Upstash)
• WebSockets

Frontend

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Chart.js
• jsVectorMap

Authentication & Security

• JWT
• bcrypt
• cookie-parser
• CORS

Architecture

URLify follows a scalable backend architecture optimized for fast redirects, caching, and asynchronous analytics processing.

                    User Request
                          ↓
                   Rate Limiter
                          ↓
                  URL Redirect API
                          ↓
                 Redis Cache Check
                    ↙           ↘
             Cache Hit        Cache Miss
                 ↓                 ↓
          Immediate Redirect   PostgreSQL Lookup
                 ↓                 ↓
             Async Analytics Logging
                          ↓
                     302 Redirect

Request Flow

1. Incoming requests pass through rate limiting to prevent abuse.
2. Redis cache is checked for fast URL retrieval.
3. Cache hits redirect immediately with minimal latency.
4. Cache misses fetch data from PostgreSQL and refresh cache.
5. Click analytics are logged asynchronously to avoid blocking redirects.
6. Users are redirected using HTTP 302 responses.

System Design Highlights

• Redis cache-aside pattern for fast redirects
• PostgreSQL as source of truth
• Async analytics logging to keep redirect path non-blocking
• Rate limiting on public redirect routes
• WebSocket-based live click notifications

Engineering Decisions

Why Redis?

Redis caching reduces redirect latency by avoiding repeated database lookups for frequently accessed links.

Why asynchronous analytics?

Analytics logging runs asynchronously so redirects remain fast and user experience is not blocked.

Why PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL was chosen for reliable relational storage and analytics querying.

Why JWT cookies?

JWT cookie authentication provides secure session handling and protected route access.

Database Schema

URLify uses PostgreSQL to manage users, shortened URLs, analytics, and user preferences.

Users

Stores user authentication and profile details.

Field	Type	Description
id	SERIAL	Primary key
username	VARCHAR(100)	Unique username
fullname	VARCHAR(150)	Full name
password	TEXT	Hashed password
created_at	TIMESTAMP	Account creation time

URLs

Stores shortened URLs and metadata.

Field	Type	Description
id	SERIAL	Primary key
user_id	INT	Linked user
original_url	TEXT	Original destination URL
short_code	VARCHAR(50)	Unique shortened code
total_clicks	INT	Number of redirects
is_active	BOOLEAN	Active/inactive status
expires_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	Link expiration
created_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	Creation timestamp
updated_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	Last updated

Click Analytics

Tracks redirect analytics and visitor behavior.

Field	Type	Description
id	SERIAL	Primary key
url_id	INT	Linked URL
clicked_at	TIMESTAMP	Click timestamp
ip_address	TEXT	Visitor IP
user_agent	TEXT	Raw user agent
device_type	VARCHAR(50)	Device type
browser	VARCHAR(50)	Browser name
operating_system	VARCHAR(50)	Operating system
country	VARCHAR(100)	Visitor region
referer	TEXT	Traffic referer
traffic_source	VARCHAR(50)	Traffic category
redirect_time_ms	NUMERIC(10,2)	Redirect latency

User Settings

Stores user preferences and analytics settings.

Field	Type	Description
user_id	INT	Linked user
default_expiry	VARCHAR(30)	Default link expiry
live_notifications	BOOLEAN	Live click notifications
analytics_auto_refresh	BOOLEAN	Dashboard auto refresh
created_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	Created time
updated_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	Updated time

Performance

Redirect Optimization

• Reduced average redirect latency from ~300ms to ~70ms using Redis caching
• Measured server-side lifecycle timings (redisMs, dbMs, redirectTimeMs)
• Implemented asynchronous analytics logging to keep redirects non-blocking
• Cache-first redirect architecture for frequently accessed links

Scalability Considerations

• Redis cache layer reduces database load for frequently accessed URLs
• PostgreSQL indexing for faster URL and analytics lookups
• Asynchronous analytics logging prevents redirect bottlenecks
• Rate limiting protects public redirect APIs from abuse
• Modular API structure for future microservice migration

Challenges Faced

• Reduced redirect latency by separating analytics logging from the redirect path
• Implemented Redis cache fallback for database misses
• Prevented authentication redirect loops using protected route middleware
• Managed real-time dashboard updates with WebSockets
• Designed analytics queries for browser, OS, device, region, and traffic source breakdowns

What I Learned

• Designing low-latency backend APIs
• Using Redis caching with PostgreSQL
• Building async analytics pipelines
• Handling authentication securely with JWT cookies
• Structuring analytics dashboards from raw event data

API Endpoints

Authentication

POST /api/auth/signup
POST /api/auth/login
POST /api/auth/logout

URL Management

GET    /api/links
POST   /api/links
PATCH  /api/links/:id
DELETE /api/links/:id
GET    /:shortCode

Analytics

GET /api/analytics
GET /api/analytics/link/:linkId

QR Code

GET /api/qr

Settings

GET    /api/settings
PATCH  /api/settings/account
PATCH  /api/settings/password
PATCH  /api/settings/preferences
DELETE /api/settings/account
GET    /api/settings/export/links
GET    /api/settings/export/analytics

Environment Variables

Create a .env file:

DATABASE_URL=
JWT_SECRET=
REDIS_URL=

Installation

git clone <repo-url>
cd urlify
npm install
npm start

Future Improvements

• Team workspaces
• Advanced analytics filters
• Geo heatmaps
• Developer API Section

License

MIT