django-link-shortener

django-link-shortener is a Django app for creating time-limited and usage-capped short URLs.

Features

• Generate short links for URLs.
• Time-sensitive links (configurable lifespan).
• Usage-limited links (configurable maximum uses).
• Per-user override of default settings via Django admin.
• Test endpoint for easy shortcode creation during development.
• Character set for shortcodes excludes I, i, 1.

Usage

1. Install with pip install django-link-shortener

2. Add shortener to your INSTALLED_APPS setting:

   INSTALLED_APPS = [
       ...
       'shortener',
   ]
   

3. Include shortener.urls in your project urls.py:

   path('s/', include('shortener.urls')),
   

4. Run python manage.py migrate to create the shortener models.

5. Use shortener.create(user, link) to generate a shortcode.

   from shortener import shortener
   
   user = User.objects.first()
   shortener.create(user, "https://example.com")
   

6. To expand the shortcode use shortener.expand(shorlink_id), or visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/s/<shortcode>/.

Test Endpoint

1. To enable the test endpoint, add the following to settings:

   SHORTENER_ENABLE_TEST_PATH = True
   

2. Start the development server and visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/s/test/<my-url-here> to create a test shortcode.

3. Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/s/<shortcode>/ to be redirected

Configuration Options

Place in settings.py. Each setting can be overridden on a per-user basis using the UrlProfile section in the Django admin.

SHORTENER_ENABLED
Default: True

Controls whether users without a shortener profile can create shortlinks.

SHORTENER_MAX_URLS
Default: -1

Controls the default maximum limit of generated urls per account. -1 sets infinite.

SHORTENER_MAX_CONCURRENT
Default: -1

Controls the default maximum limit of concurrent (active) generated urls per account. -1 sets infinite.

SHORTENER_LIFESPAN
Default: -1

Sets the default lifespan of links in seconds. -1 sets infinite.

SHORTENER_MAX_USES
Default: -1

Sets the default amount of times a link can be followed. -1 sets infinite.

SHORTENER_LENGTH
Default: 5

Note: Omitted from UrlProfile.

Sets how many digits should be used for links. Tries up to three times to generate a unique shortcode where Each failure will result in length temporarily being increased by 1.

SHORTENER_ENABLE_TEST_PATH
Default: False

If true, creates shortlinks on authenticated requests to s/test/<url>/ and returns a shortcode.

Common Use Cases

goo.gl type usage (default). Unlimited concurrent links for an unlimited length of time

SHORTENER_ENABLED = True
SHORTENER_MAX_URLS = -1
SHORTENER_MAX_CONCURRENT = -1
SHORTENER_LIFESPAN = -1
SHORTENER_MAX_USES = -1

Internal temporary link usage. 100 active links with a lifespan of 1 hour. 1 usage per link.

SHORTENER_ENABLED = True
SHORTENER_MAX_URLS = -1
SHORTENER_MAX_CONCURRENT = 100
SHORTENER_LIFESPAN = 600
SHORTENER_MAX_USES = 1

Changelog

For versions > v0.5 see Release Notes

v0.5

• Replaced NullBooleanField with BooleanField (Credit: sen-den)
• Replaced travis-ci with github actions

v0.4

• Allow null values in UrlProfile; null fields will use global values
• str representation of UrlProfile in admin
• add user to str representation of UrlMap
• removed 256 char limit on full_url (Credit: Khaeshah)