# Shorten
, (*1)
Need an easy to use custom URL shortener like bit.ly, t.co, goo.gl? Shorten is a simple, PSR-7 and PSR-15 compliant headless URL shortener made for developers like you., (*2)
Installation
Download
Shorten is a small micro application. It is easily installed with composerās create-project command., (*3)
composer create-project braid/shorten your-shortener-name
Configuration
Shorten comes with two example configuration files. To configure your instance, just copy these files:, (*4)
cp config.example.php config.php
cp phinx.example.yml phinx.yml
config.php
Edit your newly created config.php as appropriate., (*5)
| Option |
Description |
base_url |
You'll want to set your applicationās base_url to the domain name you are using as a shortener (http://bit.ly for example). |
api_secret |
Choose a randomly generated key (>32 bytes recommended). This will be your applicationās Bearer token for api requests. |
database |
Shorten uses Laravelās excellent Eloquent ORM. Configure the database credentials here. MySQL/MariaDB is recommended for medium/high traffic, but a simple SQLite is also supported. |
Pro Tip: hereās a quick way to generate an api key:, (*6)
php -r 'echo bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(32)) . "\n";'
phinx.yml
Shorten uses Rob Morganās Phinx for database migrations. Phinx has its own configuration, but the values should be the same as your config.php database settings., (*7)
Database
Once your configuration files have been created and updated, go ahead and create the database you specified in the above configuration file. Then simply run the migrations:, (*8)
vendor/bin/phinx migrate
Server
The last step is to simply point an http server or virtual host to the public directory. This documentation won't go into detail on how to setup Apache or nginx., (*9)
Api
Shorten comes with a simple API for creating, listing, and removing shortened urls., (*10)
| Method |
Endpoint |
Description |
GET |
/resources |
List all shortened URLs currently stored. |
POST |
/resources |
Creates a new URL. Must include a JSON body with a url attribute. |
DELETE |
/resources |
Removes a shortened URL. Must include a JSON body with an id attribute. |
All api requests MUST include an Authorization header in the format:, (*11)
Authorization: Bearer api_secret_here
The return format for redirect resources is JSON. Example:, (*12)
{
"id": 1,
"hash": "ce24227c",
"redirect_to": "http://www.google.com",
"count": 0,
"url": "http://bit.ly/ce24227c"
}
Note: Yes DELETE /resources/{id} would be cleaner, but using simple strings allows for faster routing., (*13)
Best practices
Shorten is intended to be a simple set-and-forget service you can use internally at your organization or embed into the apps you build. Keep in mind it is a project and not a dependency, so you are free and encouraged to bolt on additional PSR-15 middleware if you want., (*14)
Shorten is written and maintained by Braid LLC, and offered freely under an MIT license., (*15)
, (*16)
Wallogit.com
