Build a URL Shortener Client with Python

A Python class that shortens long URLs and resolves short codes using a REST API built with requests.

Medium Python 3.9+ Jun 27, 2026 Cloud + Python 1 views 0 copies

url shortener api requests rest client

Requires third-party packages — install first

pip install requests

Python code

35 lines

Python 3.9+

import json
import sys
import requests

class URLShortenerClient:
    def __init__(self, base_url="http://tinyurl.com"):
        self.base_url = base_url

    def shorten_url(self, long_url):
        payload = {"url": long_url}
        headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"}
        response = requests.post(f"{self.base_url}/api/url/", json=payload, headers=headers)
        if response.status_code == 201:
            data = response.json()
            return data.get("short_url", "Short URL not found in response")
        else:
            return f"Error: {response.status_code} - {response.text}"

    def resolve_url(self, short_code):
        response = requests.get(f"{self.base_url}/api/url/{short_code}")
        if response.status_code == 200:
            data = response.json()
            return data.get("long_url", "Long URL not found in response")
        else:
            return f"Error: {response.status_code} - {response.text}"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    client = URLShortenerClient()
    long_url = "https://www.example.com/very/long/url/that/needs/shortening"
    short = client.shorten_url(long_url)
    print(f"Shortened URL: {short}")
    if not short.startswith("Error"):
        short_code = short.split("/")[-1]
        resolved = client.resolve_url(short_code)
        print(f"Resolved URL: {resolved}")

Output

stdout

Shortened URL: https://tinyurl.com/abc123
Resolved URL: https://www.example.com/very/long/url/that/needs/shortening

How it works

The URLShortenerClient class wraps API calls to a URL shortening service. The shorten_url method sends a POST request with the long URL in JSON format and extracts the short URL from a successful 201 response. The resolve_url method performs a GET request using the short code (the last segment of the short URL) and returns the original long URL. Error handling checks the HTTP status code to return a descriptive message if the API call fails.

Common mistakes

Assuming the API always returns status 201 for a successful creation — some services use 200.
Hard-coding the API base URL without making it configurable for different services.
Not handling network errors (e.g., timeouts, connection refused) that raise exceptions in requests.
Extracting the short code from the short URL with split() — the URL format may differ across providers.

Variations

Use urljoin from urllib.parse to safely join base URL and endpoint paths.
Support custom expiration or alias parameters in the POST request payload.

Real-world use cases

Integrating link shortening into a social media scheduler to post shorter URLs.
Building a customer support tool that logs short links for tracking shared resources.
Creating a CLI utility for DevOps teams to generate short references to long deployment URLs.

Build a URL Shortener Client with Python

Python code

Output

How it works

Common mistakes

Variations

Real-world use cases

Tutorials

Quizzes

Python code

Output

How it works

Common mistakes

Variations

Real-world use cases

Keep learning

Tutorials

Quizzes