Build URL Shortener with Flask MySQL | Challenge

# Introduction

This project guides you through creating a simple URL shortener service using Flask and MySQL. You'll learn to set up a database, design a web interface, and implement functionality to shorten URLs, search for URLs by tags, and view analytics. The project is beginner-friendly and offers a comprehensive insight into web development with Python and database management.

The project is based on <https://github.com/highoncarbs/shorty>, which is originally licensed under the MIT license.

## 👀 Preview

Convert the URL with/without custom suffix, Search URLs by tag, Access the link:

<video src="https://file.labex.io/namespace/718bace8-27a3-4200-a588-dde4041ceeb9/web/project-build-a-simple-url-shortener-with-flask-and-mysql/challenge-1/assets/convert.mp4" width="100%" autoplay loop muted></video>

View information about the operating system and platform used to access the link:

<video src="https://file.labex.io/namespace/718bace8-27a3-4200-a588-dde4041ceeb9/web/project-build-a-simple-url-shortener-with-flask-and-mysql/challenge-1/assets/info.mp4" width="100%" autoplay loop muted></video>

## 🎯 Tasks

In this project, you will learn to:

- Connect a Flask application to a MySQL database.
- Create and manage a MySQL database schema for storing URL information.
- Implement frontend web pages using HTML and CSS to interact with the backend.
- Handle form data and requests in Flask to create short URLs.
- Develop functionality to redirect users from a short URL to the original URL.
- Create a simple analytics feature to track URL usage, including click counts and basic browser/platform information.
- Design user-friendly error handling and custom 404 pages for better user experience.

## 🏆 Achievements

By completing this project, you will learn:

- Basic operations with MySQL, including database and table creation, data insertion, and querying.
- The fundamentals of Flask, including routing, request handling, and template rendering.
- How to work with HTML forms and process data in a Flask application.
- Basic frontend design principles and how to apply CSS to create a visually appealing web interface.
- Simple analytics implementation to gather and display data about URL usage.
- Best practices for error handling in web applications to improve reliability and user experience.