Posts tagged web

The Long And Short Of It: How To Make Your Own URL Shortener URL shortening services are a dime a dozen these days. Ever heard of Curio.us? Or Zootit? How about x.se? No? It’s OK. Chances are you’re better off not knowing these obscure URL shorteners anyway when you can be perfectly fine with the more popular ones, like the Twitter default, bit.ly, the fairly self-explanatory tool, TinyURL, and the one with the best name, tr.im, which was my weapon of choice up until it demonstrated the impermanence of most URL shortening services a week ago prompting me to create my own URL shortener. All in a long, geekery-filled day’s work. Ta-da! I give you: http://go.aldr.in. That’s it. That is my very own URL shortening service. And by “my very own,” I do mean “mine and mine alone.” So I guess I should inform you right away that following the link to Go aldr.in! (I chose that name and subdomain because go was both relatively short and highly encouraging) will only take you to a login page that is practically a dead end to you, unless you know my password, of course. But fret not, because if you’re feeling a little geeky yourself and you want to make your own URL shortener for all your link-economizing and self-aggrandizing needs, then you’re in luck. First and foremost, you need a domain name (e.g. yourdomain.com), preferably a relatively short one (otherwise, you’re clearly missing the point, mister) and a hosting account. If you don’t have either one yet, you can register at any of the domain name registrars and hosting providers on the Web, like GoDaddy and eNom. Then, if you already have both requisites up and running, head on over to Sidepath and download the archive folder containing the files required to install the free shortening/redirection solution developed by designer and developer extraordinaire Sam Brown. You use Sidepath, once properly set up on your host’s servers, to shorten a long URL by appending a keyword of your choice to your domain name, resulting in a new URL that will redirect to the original long URL. Let’s take the slightly complex Rotten Tomatoes URL of my favorite movie, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_prisoner_of_azkaban. I have assigned the keyword “hp3” to this URL, so http://go.aldr.in/hp3 will in fact lead you to the Rotten Tomatoes page of the third Harry Potter film. Especially if you’re familiar with this sort of stuff, Sidepath installation couldn’t be easier once you’ve extracted the files and created a database for the service (database creation and management can be accessed via your host’s control panel). Everything ready? Follow these steps. 1. Edit the config.php.txt file with all of your details and rename as config.php.2. Upload the Sidepath files in the archive to your desired folder (e.g. /go or /link). 3. CHMOD your desired folder 777 (World Writable).4. Open http://yourdomain.com/folder in your Web browser and follow instructions. The above steps are applicable if you want your URL shortener to be in the form, http://yourdomain.com/folder/keyword. But what if you want it to work on the top level of your domain, i.e., http://yourdomain.com/keyword, or subdomain, i.e., http://subdomain.yourdomain.com/keyword? No problem. Sam provided an easy-to-follow solution for that. 1. Edit the config file $url variable (e.g. http://go.yourdomain.com).2. Leave the $folder variable blank (e.g. "”;).3. Upload the Sidepath files into the top-level domain/subdomain.4. Create a blank file in the top-level called .htaccess.5. CHMOD the .htaccess file World Writeable, 777. You may notice that I chose to use the subdomain variant of Sidepath. I figured this was the most feasible thing to do since I practically gave up all subfolders (“/folders”) of my domain, aldr.in, to Tumblr when I opted to use it for my Tumblr site and, like I said, go.aldr.in sounds very encouraging. (Believe me, I need every bit of encouragement I can get.) So that’s practically all you need to know to be well on your way to making your own snazzy custom URL shortener. Just leave a comment on this post or send me a message via my contact page if you have any questions, be them long or short. And to finally wrap this baby up… The short URL for this post is http://go.aldr.in/sidepath.

The Long And Short Of It: How To Make Your Own URL Shortener

URL shortening services are a dime a dozen these days. Ever heard of Curio.us? Or Zootit? How about x.se? No? It’s OK. Chances are you’re better off not knowing these obscure URL shorteners anyway when you can be perfectly fine with the more popular ones, like the Twitter default, bit.ly, the fairly self-explanatory tool, TinyURL, and the one with the best name, tr.im, which was my weapon of choice up until it demonstrated the impermanence of most URL shortening services a week ago prompting me to create my own URL shortener. All in a long, geekery-filled day’s work.

Ta-da! I give you: http://go.aldr.in.

That’s it. That is my very own URL shortening service. And by “my very own,” I do mean “mine and mine alone.” So I guess I should inform you right away that following the link to Go aldr.in! (I chose that name and subdomain because go was both relatively short and highly encouraging) will only take you to a login page that is practically a dead end to you, unless you know my password, of course.

But fret not, because if you’re feeling a little geeky yourself and you want to make your own URL shortener for all your link-economizing and self-aggrandizing needs, then you’re in luck. First and foremost, you need a domain name (e.g. yourdomain.com), preferably a relatively short one (otherwise, you’re clearly missing the point, mister) and a hosting account. If you don’t have either one yet, you can register at any of the domain name registrars and hosting providers on the Web, like GoDaddy and eNom. Then, if you already have both requisites up and running, head on over to Sidepath and download the archive folder containing the files required to install the free shortening/redirection solution developed by designer and developer extraordinaire Sam Brown.

You use Sidepath, once properly set up on your host’s servers, to shorten a long URL by appending a keyword of your choice to your domain name, resulting in a new URL that will redirect to the original long URL. Let’s take the slightly complex Rotten Tomatoes URL of my favorite movie, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_prisoner_of_azkaban. I have assigned the keyword “hp3” to this URL, so http://go.aldr.in/hp3 will in fact lead you to the Rotten Tomatoes page of the third Harry Potter film.

Especially if you’re familiar with this sort of stuff, Sidepath installation couldn’t be easier once you’ve extracted the files and created a database for the service (database creation and management can be accessed via your host’s control panel). Everything ready? Follow these steps.

1. Edit the config.php.txt file with all of your details and rename as config.php.
2. Upload the Sidepath files in the archive to your desired folder (e.g. /go or /link).
3. CHMOD your desired folder 777 (World Writable).
4. Open http://yourdomain.com/folder in your Web browser and follow instructions.

The above steps are applicable if you want your URL shortener to be in the form, http://yourdomain.com/folder/keyword. But what if you want it to work on the top level of your domain, i.e., http://yourdomain.com/keyword, or subdomain, i.e., http://subdomain.yourdomain.com/keyword? No problem. Sam provided an easy-to-follow solution for that.

1. Edit the config file $url variable (e.g. http://go.yourdomain.com).
2. Leave the $folder variable blank (e.g. "”;).
3. Upload the Sidepath files into the top-level domain/subdomain.
4. Create a blank file in the top-level called .htaccess.
5. CHMOD the .htaccess file World Writeable, 777.

You may notice that I chose to use the subdomain variant of Sidepath. I figured this was the most feasible thing to do since I practically gave up all subfolders (“/folders”) of my domain, aldr.in, to Tumblr when I opted to use it for my Tumblr site and, like I said, go.aldr.in sounds very encouraging. (Believe me, I need every bit of encouragement I can get.)

So that’s practically all you need to know to be well on your way to making your own snazzy custom URL shortener. Just leave a comment on this post or send me a message via my contact page if you have any questions, be them long or short.

And to finally wrap this baby up… The short URL for this post is http://go.aldr.in/sidepath.

You have been selected as a beta tester for Facebook Lite! We are building a faster, simpler version of Facebook that we call Facebook Lite. It’s not finished yet and we have plenty of kinks to work out, but we would love to get your feedback on what we have built so far. Check out Facebook Lite now at http://lite.facebook.com. Could this possibly be what I’ve been waiting for? You see, I’m not really cut out for the current “heavy” version. If this means I won’t get to see those wretched quiz (“Which Twilight character are you?”) and application (“Friends For Sale”) updates and invitations anymore, then by all means, give it to me and I’ll be sticking with this incipient lite version. So is this what I’ve been waiting for? Is Facebook soon going to be my Twitter? Only one way to find out. Click. Nothing. I follow the link. I go to http://lite.facebook.com and then, nothing. The page just reloads to show the same Facebook home page I was on. No difference at all. Same appearance, same torrent of queer quizzes and appalling applications. Well done, Facebook. I’m assuming the people behind Facebook sent out the notice to beta testers prematurely, that the beta version isn’t even ready yet. But until then, here’s my feedback anyway: FAIL.

You have been selected as a beta tester for Facebook Lite!

We are building a faster, simpler version of Facebook that we call Facebook Lite. It’s not finished yet and we have plenty of kinks to work out, but we would love to get your feedback on what we have built so far.

Check out Facebook Lite now at http://lite.facebook.com.

Could this possibly be what I’ve been waiting for? You see, I’m not really cut out for the current “heavy” version. If this means I won’t get to see those wretched quiz (“Which Twilight character are you?”) and application (“Friends For Sale”) updates and invitations anymore, then by all means, give it to me and I’ll be sticking with this incipient lite version.

So is this what I’ve been waiting for? Is Facebook soon going to be my Twitter? Only one way to find out.

Click. Nothing. I follow the link. I go to http://lite.facebook.com and then, nothing. The page just reloads to show the same Facebook home page I was on. No difference at all. Same appearance, same torrent of queer quizzes and appalling applications. Well done, Facebook.

I’m assuming the people behind Facebook sent out the notice to beta testers prematurely, that the beta version isn’t even ready yet. But until then, here’s my feedback anyway: FAIL.