🔗 Nickly - URL Shortener

Nickly is a URL Shortener web application built with Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, and EJS.
It allows users to shorten long URLs, track analytics, and manage their links with a clean and responsive dashboard.

🚀 Live Demo: https://nickly.onrender.com
(⚠️ Since it's deployed on a free Render server, it might take a few seconds to wake up.)

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✨ Features

• 🔗 Shorten Long URLs – Generate unique short links using NanoID.
• 🎯 Custom Short URLs – Users can choose their own short ID if available.
• 📊 Analytics Dashboard – Track total clicks and view click trends with Chart.js.
• ⏳ Visit History – Every click is logged with timestamp data.
• 🗂️ Pagination Support – Displays 10 URLs per page for better management also search feature. (under construction)
• 🎨 Responsive UI – Built with Bootstrap 5 and custom styles.
• 🌍 Deployed on Render – Connected with MongoDB Atlas for cloud storage.

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🛠️ Technologies Used

• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Frontend: EJS, Bootstrap, Font Awesome
• Database: MongoDB Atlas (Mongoose ODM)
• Utilities: NanoID, Chart.js
• Deployment: Render

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📂 Project Structure

Nickly/
│── controllers/      # Route handlers (shorten, analytics, etc.)
│── models/           # MongoDB models
│── routes/           # App routes
│── views/            # EJS templates
│── public/           # Static assets (CSS, JS)
│── .env              # Environment variables
│── index.js          # Entry point
│── connect.js        # MongoDB connection

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⚡ Setup Instructions

Follow these steps to run the project locally:

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/theadarsh1m/Nickly.git
cd Nickly

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the project root with the following:

PORT=8001
MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_atlas_connection_string
BASE_URL=http://localhost:8001

⚠️ Replace your_mongodb_atlas_connection_string with your MongoDB Atlas URI.

4. Start the server

npm start

Now visit 👉 http://localhost:8001

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📊 Screenshots

Dashboard

Analytics

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👨‍💻 Author

Adarsh Sachan
📌 GitHub | LinkedIn

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⭐ Contribute

Want to improve Nickly?

• Fork the repo
• Create a new branch (feature-xyz)
• Commit changes
• Open a Pull Request 🚀

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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