Shorter Links

Description

The Shorter Links WordPress plugin overrides the default WordPress
“shortlink” URL with one that has a custom text in it. You can also set a
different base URL.

A custom field called “Shorter link” is created once a post is saved,
so that you can change the shortlink to a more memorable set of
characters.

The choice of base URL to use for the short link can be configured within
Settings->Shorter Links.

Related Links:

• Plugin home page

Licence

This plugin is licensed under the New BSD license.

History

2.1.0 – 8 August 2015
Rework to look for the shorter link after WordPress has done its processing. This
means that a shorterlink that represents a date won’t affect an archive list.

2.0.6 – 8 August 2015
Ensure that the short_link is correct when using a post id.

2.0.5 – 8 August 2015
Updated Tested up to 4.3

2.0.3 – 9 July 2012
Bug fix so that archives work.

2.0.2 – 23 June 2012
Fall back to REQUEST_URI if there’s nothing interesting in $query_vars.

2.0.1 – 20 June 2012
Updated to handle 4 digit short links that look like a year to WordPress.

2.0.0 – 21 November 2010
Updated to be WordPress 3.0 or above, so we only need to hook into the WordPress
shortlink system

1.8.2 – 21 November 2010
Fix permissions issue on settings page. This is the last version that works
on WordPress 2.9.x or earlier.

1.8.1 – 7 September 2010
Bug fix to remove a warning.

1.8 – 1 September 2010
use shortlink rather than shorturl for WordPress less than 3.
For WordPress 3 or higher, hook into the new shortlink system.
Fix the admin page so that it displays in WordPress 3.

1.7 – 11 Feburary 2010
Handle failures better.

1.6 – 10 January 2010
Update version number in correct places so that the WP plugins system notices the update.

1.5 – 29 December 2009
Support permalinks that start with /%category%/

1.4 – 14 April 2009
Support rel=”shorturl” as per Robert Spychala’s Short URL Auto-Discovery proposal.

1.3 – 14 April 2009
Add support for setting the base URL. Patch by Dave Marshall.

1.2 – 13 April 2009
Only send the Link HTTP header as recommended by Shiflett.

1.1 – 13 April 2009
Fixed output of HTTP headers. Patch by Jeff Waugh.

1.0 – 11 April 2009
Initial release.

Installation

1. Upload shorter_links.php and config.php to /wp-content/plugins/shorter-links directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. If you want to set a different base URL, change it from
   Settings->Shorter Links.
4. To set a custom shorter link, update a post so that the custom field is
   created and then fill in a unique value in the field.

FAQ

Is there a bookmarklet to extract shorturl links?

Try this bookmarklet: Short URL

(Just drag to your bookmarks bar)

The source of the bookmarklet is:

javascript:(function(){var%20url=document.location;var%20links=document.getElementsByTagName('link');var%20found=0;for(var%20i=0,l;l=links[i];i++){if(l.getAttribute('rel')=='shortlink'||(/alternateshort/).exec(l.getAttribute('rel'))){found=l.getAttribute('href');break;}}if(!found){for(var%20i=0;l=document.links[i];i++){if(l.getAttribute('rel')=='shorturl'){found=l.getAttribute('href');break;}}}if(found){prompt('URL:',found);}else{alert("No%20shortlink%20found");}})();

There’s also the “Short URL” Safari extension by Clink Ecker.

Reviews

Doesn't Work with Tag or Category Archives

September 3, 2016

This works fine for pages and posts. However it adds non-working links in the headers of tag and category pages.

Works but low quality

1F913 September 3, 2016

Simple and functional

Alias79 September 3, 2016

I love this plugin, it does exactly what I need. It has a small issue for me, which certainly can be solved (it is reported here https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/short-links-with-p?replies=1#post-7856701).

Works for me!

mkthefeathers September 3, 2016

I used a different domain name for the short URL and it works, simple solution. No complications. But I wish there was an option to edit the shortlink instead of using WordPress’s default one?

Contributors & Developers