URL too long for tweets

Hi there,

I’m Ribin from the AddThis support team. You can shorten the URL using bitly.

More information can be found here: https://support.addthis.com/customer/portal/articles/381247-url-shortening#shortening-bitly

If it’s not working after configuring bitly, then send us the URL address of your page where you’ve installed the AddThis tools to [email protected]. We’re happy to help!

Thanks!

Sorry, I don’t know how to do code, so the instructions didn’t make sense to me. Is there an easier plugin I can use for sharing posts via Twitter?

Hi there,

You need to use Bitly service in order to shorten the URL for twitter sharing. Unfortunately, currently we don’t have any other workaround for it. It’s simple! Just follow the steps below:

1. Create an account with Bitly and configure the Bitly login and API in your AddThis dashboard bitly settings- https://i.imgur.com/yxfVdWv.png

2. Then add the below code directly into your site’s footer or header template. To do this in WordPress, just go to Appearance > Editor. From there, you’ll open the Footer (footer.php) template and paste the code just before the </body> tag.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var addthis_share = {
// … other options
url_transforms : {
shorten: {
twitter: ‘bitly’
}
},
shorteners : {
bitly : {}
}
}
</script>

Let us know if you’ve more questions. We’re happy to help!

Thanks!

Hey there,

Sorry for my earlier reply. There’s another easy way for URL shortening. You’re not required to add any code for it.

The good thing about the 5.0 plugin is that Bitly is actually built in, under Advanced Options. Which means, you just need to check the box, rather than adding additional code to the page.

Here’s the steps:

1. Create an account with Bitly and configure the Bitly login and API in your AddThis dashboard bitly settings- https://i.imgur.com/yxfVdWv.png

2. Then go to your WordPress admin and click on AddThis Sharing Buttons.
Under Advanced Options you can see “Bitly URL shortening for Twitter”. Check the box and save the changes made- https://i.imgur.com/HG6DIer.png

Feel free to contact us for more questions.

Thanks!

Hey Digby.

Step 1 (the bitly account) is optional. You only need it if you want to get stats from bitly about the URLs it makes for you.

I checked the box “Bitly URL shortening for Twitter” and it still doesn’t work. And I’m getting phishing on my site now. I think it’s from the AddThis plug-in.

Hi Digbydigz.

As I mentioned in your other two threads, the phishing seems to be from Sweet Captcha. There’s nothing we can do about it on our side. I recommend disabling whatever plugin is adding in the https://www.sweetcaptcha.com/api/v2/apps/csrf/40883?ver=3.1.0 Sweet Captcha script.

Bitly seems to be working on other sites, such as our blog: https://www.addthis.com/blog/

I see you’ve taken our tools off page. :- ( That’s understandable. I’d do that too a tool too, if I thought it was doing what Sweet Captcha is doing. I’m happy to take another look at your Twitter buttons if you choose to put our buttons back on your page. But otherwise, I’m afraid there’s nothing for me to do.

You nailed it! Wow, thanks so much! You were much more helpful than my hosting site.

I’ve reactivated your plug-in, so if you can take a look at the long URLs when Tweeting, that would be awesome.

Thanks again.

Hi Digbydigz.

The Twitter buttons and bit.ly URL shortening appears to be working as expected for me on your site.

Here’s a video of how they’re working for me in Chrome and Firefox: https://youtu.be/JO70_67u7oo

Is there a specific button on a specific page that you’re having issues with?

It works fine on the home page, but as you see when you click on the first post and try to tweet it, the URL is over the 140 characters allowed by Twitter.

Hi Digbydigz.

I’m still not seeing an issue with bitly.

In this screen shot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jfpfbomld8nd4rg/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-08%20at%2010.11.23%20AM.png?dl=0

The URL of https://squirrelsinthedoohickey.com/how-one-obscenely-large-crow-turned-me-into-a-vegan-overnight/ is being shortened properly to https://bit.ly/1HO3DQk

Are you not seeing these bit.ly URLs when you use the twitter button? Is there a particular page that isn’t doing that?

If you want to use something shorter for the text prepending the URL, here’s documentation on how to do this with the addthis_share variable:

https://support.addthis.com/customer/portal/articles/683399-changes-to-how-twitter-works-with-addthis

There’s a textarea in the plugin’s advanced options where you can enter JSON for this.

Hey Julka,

Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do…shorten the text that appears before the URL. I checked out the link you suggested, but must confess it’s all Greek to me. I don’t know code. Am I supposed to cut and paste that text onto my site in the plugin’s advanced options? If so, which text? (I didn’t build my website, so I’m clueless. Sorry!)