PixCut

Pixel-perfect URL trimming with copy-ready short links and instant QR codes. Built with Express, EJS, MongoDB, and shortid.

Features

• Shorten URLs with unique short codes (duplicates return the existing short link)
• Auto-generated QR codes for each shortened link
• Copy-to-clipboard helper for the generated short URL
• Simple Bootstrap UI served from the same Express app

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• MongoDB instance (local or hosted)

Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

   npm install

2. Create a .env file in the project root:

   PORT=3000
   MONGODB=mongodb://localhost:27017/pixcut

3. Run the server in dev mode

   npm run dev

4. Open http://localhost:3000 and shorten a URL.

API

• POST /shortUrls
  • Body: { "fullUrl": "https://example.com" }
  • Success: { "full": "https://example.com", "short": "AbCdEf" }
• GET /:short
  • Redirects to the full URL for the provided short code

Data Model

• Url document
  • full (string, required, unique)
  • short (string, generated via shortid, required)

Scripts

• npm run dev — start the server with nodemon

Notes

• Static assets live in public/; the main view is views/index.ejs.
• QR codes are generated client-side via the qrserver.com API.