𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗣𝗜 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁

𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗣𝗜 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁

I fixed a project I built four years ago. It is a link shortener. The site broke because the API shut down. I did not notice for years.

I revived it for the GitHub Finish-Up-A-Thon challenge.

The 2022 version was a mess. It had typos. It had 765 lines of messy CSS. It used alerts for error messages. It had a stats section with no data.

I updated the project. I kept the same stack: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I wanted to show the growth in my skill.

New features include:

• Real click stats with charts.
• QR codes for download.
• Password protected links.
• Dark and light themes.
• Offline app support.

GitHub Copilot helped with the work. It found the dead API. It helped rewrite the CSS. It fixed old typos.

I learned how to use fetch in my first year of college. I graduate with a computer science degree in a few days.

Compare your old work to your new work. You will see how much you grew.

Live demo: https://urlshortner-revival-2026.netlify.app/ Source: https://github.com/ELHart05/URL-Shortner Full story: https://dev.to/elhart05/i-revived-my-first-ever-api-project-after-it-had-been-broken-for-four-years-1g2k