URL Longification: Our Tech Stack and Journey

Why URL Longification? (Because Why Not!)

In a world obsessed with making everything shorter, faster, and more efficient, we boldly asked: “What if we did the exact opposite?” Thus, NotShort was born – the premier URL longification service that nobody asked for but everyone secretly needed.

While URL shorteners are a dime a dozen, we wanted to carve our own unique path in the digital world. After all, why blend in when you can stand out with ridiculously elongated URLs that make your friends question your life choices?

Our Tech Stack: Building a Monument to Internet Absurdity

Frontend Magic

We started with the “Naid” template from Astro’s free template collection. Originally designed as a portfolio template, we saw beyond its intended purpose – a hidden gem with landing page potential waiting to be unleashed! We expanded on this foundation, building a full dashboard and additional pages while maintaining the original design language.

The frontend stack includes:

• Astro: For blazing-fast, component-based web development
• UnoCSS: Utility-first CSS for streamlined styling
• TypeScript: Because we like our code like we like our URLs – strongly typed

Backend Brilliance

Behind the scenes, we’re powered by:

• Supabase: Our database, authentication, and serverless function provider
• Node.js: Running our API endpoints and server logic
• Astro API Routes: For seamless frontend-backend integration

The Development Dream Team

The Human Element

• Kavin T: That’s me! A BTech IT grad with too much time during holidays and a strange idea
• Gowtham S: My classmate and friend who, despite not being a tech enthusiast, provided invaluable help with template searching, longification logic brainstorming, and design feedback.

The Silicon Assistants

Development was accelerated by some brilliant AI tools:

• GitHub Copilot (Claude 3.7 Sonnet, GPT-4.1): For code generation and problem-solving
• Roo Code (Gemini 2.5 Pro API): For additional development assistance

Without these digital companions, this project might have taken weeks instead of a weekend. And without Gowtham’s design eye, it might have looked like it was built in the 90s!

The Supabase Situation and Future Plans

We’re currently on Supabase’s free tier, which comes with some limitations. As our user base grows, we’ll likely need to introduce a subscription model to keep the servers running and the URLs growing longer.

Future Feature Fantasies:

• Custom URL Length Control: Choose exactly how ridiculously long you want your URLs
• Topic-Based Longification: Generate URLs with words related to specific themes
• AI-Powered Humor Integration: Let AI generate even more hilarious word combinations
• Analytics Dashboard: Track how many people actually click on your monstrous creations

Help Us Grow!

All of these plans require one crucial ingredient: users! The more people who use NotShort, the more we can justify expanding our feature set and server capacity.

Currently, my investment in this project has been my time and the domain cost. If you find value in making your URLs unnecessarily verbose, consider sharing the site with friends or making a small donation.

The Bottom Line

NotShort isn’t just a URL longifier; it’s a statement against the constant push for brevity in our digital lives. Sometimes, taking the long way around is more fun – especially when it involves confusing your friends with links that wrap around the screen three times.

So next time someone sends you a bit.ly link, respond with a NotShort URL and watch their reaction. That moment of confusion followed by laughter is what we’re all about!