We have just completed the roll-out of a nifty, new feature to the WooFramework, which now includes support for URL Shortening. The basic idea is to offer you a template tag which would output a shorter URL – currently only supports TinyURL (default) and bit.ly (with your API key) – which you can then publish as added meta on your posts.
This functionality was inspired by the implementation thereof on various Tumblr-powered sites (for example: Matthew Buchanan). The benefit of publishing a shortened URL is in minimizing the amount of time that your readers will need to link to your content (i.e. increasing their convenience). So it’s a pretty nifty feature to have we believe! 
As mentioned, this functionality is available in the WooFramework now and we’ll soon be publishing a little tutorial with regards to the backwards integration thereof. Both Cinch & Slanted have been updated to include the backend functionality, as well as the publishing of “Short URL” links in the front-end.
Too Easy
Here’s a little preview of the backend:
WooFramework: URL Shortening Settings
And this is what the function (in the front-end) looks like:
Short URL
Instead of thus using a standard WP template tag for the link, we’re now just using one function:
What do you think?
32 Responses to “Framework’d: URL Shortening”
Nifty feature, but I can’t really see the point of this feature. The main feature (minimising time for people to share the link) is already pretty short (i.e., cut and paste). In my view, a built in “tweet this” feature would be welcome.
This is just the first steps really; we will be building some additional functionality on top of this soon (i.e. Tweet This).
Nice solution.. but for what reason should one use a encrypted URL in a website? I mean, it can’t be for length, because a website isn’t restricted to 140chars.
It is actually just for convenience when one of your readers would like to quickly share that link elsewhere.
Thanks for your (as always) fast reply, Adii. I admit i haven’t thought about that point.
I’m dreaming about a feature including URL shortener to my own domain to preserve SEO: http://mydomainwithoutwww.com/ur454
But nice work !
There’s a plug-in for that!
Well now it’s in the WooFramework as well!
I like the feature (it’s convenient for what it does, and it’s one more thing that Woothemes framework provides, great), but I don’t see how it would fit into a regular template; most Twitter clients these days already do URL shortening automatically, and it’s not SUCH an issue on IM and mail as it may have once been.
I hope people don’t stat using this as a substitute for the proper permalink. That would cause innumerable redirects when engines crawl the website, not to mention each click through to other posts.
Nah, I don’t think it’ll ever replace permalinks, as they have great value for SEO.
I think it would be cool to have domain.com/?p=n or just domain.com/%postnumber as urlshortener for short domains.
For example for my blog I could use http://geir.me/1, geir.me/2 etc, would be very good for sharing stuff.
A simple fix could be http://geir.me/?p=1 and so on.. Any smart ideas on how to use “default WP url” as short url (..but still use pretty URLs for WP)?
Mmm… This is a pretty cool idea actually. Just a little more custom functionality which adds the flexibility for you to add any base URL as the short URL. Will talk to the WooTeam about it!
This is just great !
And for some of us using twitter it will be great to have people tweeting the article using the same short URL instead of having a different one for each user twitting an article.
I can definitely see use for this !!
perfect !
And since you created the bit.ly link with your credentials, you’ve got analytics on top of that. I’ve seen the http://yourdomain.com/ I like that format too, as long as your domain is short…
This makes sense to me too. I have my own URL shortener service using a specific domain and Pretty Link, and I know lots of people use Pretty Link on their own sites to create vanity links that redirect elsewhere, for various reasons including tracking.
Yes, this is a good idea, but I want to know if this is good for seo or not.
If the short URL use 301 redirect its good for SEO.
For example:
Checked link: http://geir.me/?p=1
Type of redirect: 301 Moved Permanently
Redirected to: http://geir.me/hello-world/
Who can I talk to about getting Linkee.com (the service I run/own) into there? I’m sure we’d probably be happy to write the code for you if you’d want to include it.
Or can you make it more extensible to support other services similar to the way that Tweetie does it on the iPhone? Then you won’t have to handle a myriad of requests for this functionality.
Could you please integrate YOURLS (http://yourls.org) into your framework as well?!
Every blog running the WP.com stats plugin already has WP.me short URLs enabled and exposed in both their dashboard (Get Shortlink button) and in their head as rel=shortlink. You should support that for people who have it active.
Thanks for stopping by Matt!
And we’ll definitely add support for WP.me, especially considering that it is already “built-in” to an extent.
Groovy! I think there’s even a standard API for shortlinks but I’ll double-check on that.
Just dropped by to say hello to Matt and Adii. Great to see the original founders of WordPress being active participants in 3rd party extensions community/companies. The beauty is Woothemes itself works with a collaborative team, and is very open about customisation, hacks and is now a platform in itself. Much like how wordpress has seen itself growing. From an app to a platform.
Three cheers to WordPress and WooThemes!
I think it’s fantastic to see GPL-based businesses thriving like WooThemes is and also becoming involved in the core development process. It’s a virtuous cycle that grows the entire market and as WP does well so will Woo.
There is a standard shortlink API now that this thread has reminded that I was supposed to add it. See ticket #10640. Basically, it provides a wp_get_shortlink() functions that does pretty much nothing by default. It exists so that plugins can make it useful. Themes then have a consistent function they can use to get shortlinks while allowing all of the shortlink generation to be handled by whatever shortlink plugin is installed. Feedback appreciated. I’ll be updating the wp.me shortlink handling in the stats plugin to accommodate this new API.
Awesome & thanks for the note Ryan. Will definitely get Jeff onto this as soon as we’re back from the slopes.
Thanks Matt & Ryan – great to get your input! Will check it out asap.
Wonderful idea…
I like the idea of having this built in.. saves me from putting it in myself… I have been using pretty much the same thing on my site which started life off as Typebased. I have a little social networking thing on the top left of the page (hidden until you scroll down) that uses it for my retweet image.. Its handy, efficient and has a few useful purposes.
PS.. one more thing I forgot, I also use this inside my “drag image to share” javascript.. works great to provide a short url for that too.. endless things this could be used for.
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