YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

About YOURLS

What is YOURLS

YOURLS is a small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service (a la TinyURL). You can make it private or public, you can pick custom keyword URLs, it comes with its own API. You will love it.

There's a WordPress plugin available for YOURLS, making integration with your blog a snap: create short URLs and tweet them automagically as you publish blog posts.

YOURLS Features

• Public (everybody can create short links) or private (your links only)
• Sequential or custom URL keyword
• Handy bookmarklet to easily shorten and share links
• Awesome stats: historical click reports, referrers tracking, visitors geo-location
• Neat AJAXed interface
• Developer API
• Friendly installer

Screenshots

Download

Download YOURLS from Google Code

You can follow YOURLS' development on the revision list and get current snapshot using SVN

Credits

YOURLS is made by:

• Lester Chan &ndash @GamerZ on Twitter
• Ozh Richard &ndash @Ozh on Twitter

Fresh Install

1. Unzip the YOURLS archive
2. Copy includes/config-sample.php to includes/config.php
3. Open includes/config.php with a raw text editor (like Notepad) and fill in the required settings
4. Upload the unzipped files to your domain public_html or www folder
5. Create a new database (see Configuration – you can also use an existing one)
6. Point your browser to http://yoursite.com/admin/

Upgrade from YOURLS 1.3 or earlier

1. Make a copy of your config.php
2. Delete all files including .htaccess in YOURLS root directory
3. Unzip the YOURLS archive, upload the files
4. Copy config-sample.php to config.php and fill in details. Don't start with your old config file, use the new sample config file.
5. In your new config.php, add the defines for YOURLS_DB_TABLE_URL and YOURLS_DB_TABLE_NEXTDEC you had in your previous config file
6. Backup the database!
7. Point your browser to http://yoursite.com/admin/ and follow instructions
8. After upgrade is well and over, remove the define YOURLS_DB_TABLE_NEXTDEC from your config file
9. I promise that during next upgrade you won't need to touch your config file again :)

Configuration (in includes/config.php)

MySQL settings

• YOURLS_DB_USER
  your MySQL username
  Example: 'joe'
• YOURLS_DB_PASS
  your MySQL password
  Example: 'MySeCreTPaSsW0rd'
• YOURLS_DB_NAME: The database name
  Example: 'yourls'
• YOURLS_DB_HOST
  The database host
  Example: 'localhost'
• YOURLS_DB_PREFIX
  The name prefix for all the tables YOURLS will need
  Example: 'yourls_'

Site options

• YOURLS_SITE
  Your (short) domain URL, no trailing slash
  Example: 'http://ozh.in'
• YOURLS_HOURS_OFFSET
  Timezone GMT offset
  Example: '-5'
• YOURLS_PRIVATE
  Private means protected with login/pass as defined below. Set to false for public usage
  Example: 'true'
• YOURLS_UNIQUE_URLS
  Allow multiple short URLs for a same long URL
  Set to true to allow only one pair of shortURL/longURL (default YOURLS behavior), or to false to allow creation of multiple short URLs pointing to the same long URL (as bit.ly does)
  Example: 'true'
• YOURLS_COOKIEKEY
  A random secret hash used to encrypt cookies. You don't have to remember it, make it long and complicated. Hint: generate a unique one at http://yourls.org/cookie
  Example: 'qQ4KhL_pu|s@Zm7n#%:b^{A[vhm'
• yourls_user_passwords
  A list of username(s) and password(s) allowed to access the site if private
  Example: 'joe' => 'mypassword'

URL Shortening settings

• YOURLS_URL_CONVERT
  URL shortening method: base 36 or 62. See FAQ for more explanations
• yourls_reserved_URL
  A list of reserved keywords that won't be used as short URLs. Define here negative, unwanted or potentially misleading keywords
  Example: 'porn', 'faggot', 'sex', 'nigger', 'fuck', 'cunt', 'dick', 'gay'

Optional settings

• YOURLS_PRIVATE_INFOS
  If YOURLS_PRIVATE is set to true, you can still easily make your individual stat pages public. To do so, override the global private setting with:
  define('YOURLS_PRIVATE_INFOS', false);
• YOURLS_PRIVATE_API
  If YOURLS_PRIVATE is set to true, you can still easily make your API public. To do so, override the global private setting with:
  define('YOURLS_PRIVATE_API', false);
• YOURLS_NOSTATS
  If YOURLS_NOSTATS is set to true, redirects won't be logged and there will be not stats available.
  

WordPress Plugin

Features

• Generate short URLs for each new post or page
• Send a tweet on your Twitter account with the post title and short URL as you publish them
• Works if YOURLS is hosted on the same server or on a remote server
• Also compatible with tr.im, is.gd, tinyurl.com and bit.ly for maximum fun

Screenshots

Download & more informations

• Download YOURLS: WordPress to Twitter from the official WordPress plugin repository
• More information, tips and feedback on the plugin page from planetOzh

YOURLS' API

Features

• Generate or get existing short URLs, with sequential or custom keyword
• Get some statistics about your links: top clicked links, least clicked links, newest links
• Output format: JSON, XML, or simple raw text

Usage

You need to send parameters to http://yoursite.com/yourls-api.php either via GET or POST. These parameters are:

• A valid username
• A valid password
• The requested action: "shorturl" (get short URL for a link), "expand" (get long URL of a shorturl) or "stats" (get stats about your links)
• With action = "shorturl" :
  • the url to shorten
  • optional keyword for custom short URLs
  • output format: either "json", "xml" or "simple"
• With action = "expand" :
  • the shorturl to expand (can be either 'abc' or 'http://site/abc')
  • output format: either "json", "xml" or "simple"
• With action = "stats" :
  • the filter: either "top", "bottom" , "rand" or "last"
  • the limit (maximum number of links to return)
  • output format: either "json" or "xml"

Sample return

<result>
	<url>
		<id>62019439011</id>
		<keyword>shorter</keyword>
		<url>http://somereallylongurlyouneedtoshrink.com/</url>
		<date>2009-06-23 18:08:07</date>
		<ip>127.0.0.1</ip>
	</url>
	<status>success</status>
	<message>http://somereallylongurlyouneedtoshrink.com/ (ID: shorter) added to database</message>
	<shorturl>http://yoursite.com/shorter</shorturl>
</result>

Sample file

There's a sample file included that serves as an example on how to play with the API

FAQ

Server requirements

1. A server with mod_rewrite enabled
2. At least PHP 4.3
3. At least MYSQL 4.1
4. Note: YOURLS can also run on Nginx (Read more)

Server recommendations

• PHP CURL extension installed if you plan on playing with the API

Limitations

• Maximum length of long URLs to be shortened is 2000 characters
• Maximum length of custom keyword is 200 characters
• That makes about 8 sexdecillions of centillions of available URLs (seriously. That's a 355 digits number).

Difference Between Base 36 And Base 62 Encoding

• Base 36 encoding uses 0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
• Base 62 encoding uses 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
• Stick to one setting, don't change after you've created links as it will change all your short URLs!
• Base 36 should be picked. Use 62 only if you understand what it implies.
• Consider Base 62 encoding a beta feature

Getting a short domain name for your YOURLS install

• Unless you plan on making it public, any shared hosting should be fine
• Domainr is a fun search tool that might inspire and help you
• Aim for exotic top level domains (.in, .im, .li ...), they're often cheap and a lot are still available. Gandi is a pretty comprehensive registrar, for instance.

YOURLS needs its own .htaccess

• You cannot install YOURLS and, say, WordPress, in the same directory. Both of them need to handle URLs differently
• If you want to install YOURLS on the same domain than your blog, give it its own (short) subdirectory, such as yourblog.com/s/ (for "short") or yourblog.com/x/ (for "exit")

If YOURLS generates 404 for your short URLs

• Make sure mod_rewrite is enabled with your Apache server
• Some (crappy) hosts such as GoDaddy or 1and1 need a small fix to .htaccess:

Feedback and bug reporting

• Please don't get in touch directly by mail or Twitter
• Raise an issue here and give all the details. Thanks!

Showcase

Here are a few examples of sites running YOURLS with a unique design or concept

• http://hmm.ph/
  Funny domain name, nicely styled
• http://qte.me/
  Another YOURLS setup with a cute quote look
• http://unsl.im/
  Gorgeous design listing latest links with a custom RSS feed (private use)
• http://mrte.ch/
  Mr Tech's public YOURLS setup, listing top links and some stats
• http://s4c.in/
  Shorten 4 Charity, a public YOURLS setup with shortened links displayed within a frame containing ads for charities
• http://girv.in/
  John Girvin's YOURLS setup with all links in a sortable display
• http://www.iyeman.net/
  http://tinytags.co.cc/
  Examples of portals for your online self with links to your places (blog, Twitter) and your URL shortener
• http://li.nkto.me/
  A nice domain name hack :)
• http://vb.ly/
  Public YOURLS setup run by famous sex writer Violet Blue as "the internet's first and only sex-positive url shortener"

More stuff about or with YOURLS

• http://screenr.com/nTs
  A screencast explaining how to setup YOURLS
• YOURLS Widget for WordPress
  This widget adds a convenient short URL service into your sidebar. Check the above link for a live example
• WWW-Shorten-Yourls
  A Perl module to shorten URLs using YOURLS
• Textexpander and YOURLS
  Making YOURLS and Textexpander on the Mac play together
• YOURLS and Tweetie 2
  How to set up Tweetie2 so it uses your own service
• Export URLS as text list
  A simple script to list all URLs, one per line, in plain text (for using as an indexer config file, for example)
• YOURLS featured on Lifehacker