url_shortener

Overview

This is a demonstration of my learning/using Python and TypeScript in order to create a program that converts a URL into a randomly-generated string key to append to the "shortened URL domain"—in this case, it would be localhost:8000. This was originally inspired by this guide but deviates from the guide in quite a few ways. For one, the Python implementation replaces the SQLAlchemy approach with Piccolo and PostgreSQL.

Also, this project also includes a Google Chrome extension for using the Python app via POST requests, albeit unpacked since

The techonologies/languages I learned to create this are:

• Python
  • FastAPI
  • Piccolo
  • PostgreSQL
• JavaScript/TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • Google Chrome Extension API
  • fetch

Setup

Install requirements

pip install -r requirements.txt

Getting started guide

To activate the Python app, run this in Terminal:

python main.py

then follow this guide to load the unpacked extension into your Chrome browser—the extension root directory to load should be extension/—and the extension should be visible and usable via the right-click context menu, replete with clipboard write and notification banners.

url.mov