We recently had a request to allow the root URL of your white-labeled domains to be redirected to another location, instead of the ShortSwitch homepage. Seemed like a great idea, so we added the feature. Now if someone sees your pithy short domain, and either strips the token or enters an invalid token, you can have them directed to a location on your web site. Both a custom invalid URL and a homepage redirect URL can be added in your account settings.
The TweetDeck Twitter client allows users to choose which URL shortening service they would like to use. They also allow you to specify an API string that allows you to choose any URL shortening service assuming that service returns the correct data. With the introduction of the “simple” format, ShortSwitch can return that data allowing you to use your ShortSwitch user as your default URL shortener for TweetDeck.
To do so simply log into your account and go to the Tools page. Scroll down to the section “TweetDeck Custom URL Shortener” and copy your unique API string. Then follow the TweetDeck directions for choosing a URL shortener (http://support.tweetdeck.com/entries/132632) and paste in the API string you copied.
You’ll be all set to use ShortSwitch as your TweetDeck URL shortener!
If you’d like to read more about the new “simple” format, please visit the API page.
When you create an account on ShortSwitch we ask for the domain that you want to use as your branded URL service and an email address and password that will be used for the account administrator. For plans that support multiple users, the administrator can create additional users with separate logins to the account. Only people with a valid login can create shortened URLs using your domain. As a user, when you login to the dashboard you see all links that have been created on the account. You can sort and filter on links by different users, and track which links are the most popular.
It’s a pain to have to login to create a new shortened URL. Therefore, we support various tools via our API so that you can shorten links from other applications. The simplest and easiest is via our bookmarklet. Each user on your account has a bookmarklet (see image) that they can add to their favorite browser. When you are on a website page that you want to create a shortened URL for, then you click your bookmarklet and it generates the short URL, and opens a new window with the details of the URL. This saves you the step of logging in to create the URL.
Each bookmarklet is tied to a user via their API key. If you need to reset your API key to make an old bookmarklet unusable, you can do that in the Users section of our dashboard. For example, let’s say you broke up with your boyfriend, but the bookmarklet is on his laptop, and you are worried he might create shortened links to some NSFW sites. Reset your API key and the old bookmarklet will stop working.
We have added an account option that allows you to switch to a bit.ly-style randomly generated 6 character token for your shortened URL. By default we use a base 58 incrementing counter that starts with a single character and increases from there.
Examples are: http://shor.tswit.ch/1 or http://shor.tswit.ch/7a
Some users have desired an non-incrementing counter so that links are not as easily guessable. To get a randomly generated 6 character token goto your account settings and check the box that says Use Random Token Generator.
Voila, your links can now look like this: http://l.neutronflux.net/1LL1Zx
QR Codes are starting to catch on in the US.
We offer two easy ways to turn your shortened URL into a 2-D barcode. First, you can get a QR code for your shortcode by making a request to your shortened URL with the added suffix of “.qr”. For example, the 2-D code for the link above is http://shor.tswit.ch/7a.qr and the resulting QR code is seen to the left.
The second way you can generate a QR code is by clicking on the button that says QR Code in the link details area of your dashboard.
Some companies already have a great domain that is an ideal candidate for use as an URL shortener; however, the root domain is already in use for the website. Other companies require an act of God to change any DNS settings. Initially, our service would handle the former by recommending that the company use a sub domain, and we would handle the later by asking to whom should we pray. Now we have another option that allows multiple uses of a domain, and does not require any DNS changes. You can configure your account to run at a path off of your domain.
To use the feature do the following:
- Choose a domain whose web server settings you have the ability to modify. This means that you or someone in your company must have the ability to modify the configuration of the web or application server that is used to serve that domain. If you put Google or Myspace as your domain, then please contact us. First, because you probably don’t have the ability to use those domains. Second, if you do have the ability to use those domains, then we want to make sure we are scaling to suit your needs… anyway let’s get back on track.
- During account sign up choose the domain that you want to use as your URL shortener. If you already have an account you can change the domain that is being used within your account settings. By default the system assumes that you will modify your DNS settings to have that domain resolve to our server. We are now going to change some accounts settings to use rewrites instead.
- Login to account. Under the Account settings, enable the setting Use Rewrites Instead of a DNS Change.
- Next, you need to pick a path at which your shortening service will run. On the accounts page this is called the Prepend Path. You will probably want to make this path as short as possible, so you might want to choose a single letter. For example, this link to the Olympics site, http://eyestreet.com/s/olympics, has been setup with the domain of eyestreet.com and the prepend path of s.
- The last step is to modify your web server configuration settings to rewrite all requests that come to your server at that path, and redirect them to our server. We provide examples for both Apache and Nginx. Make sure to use the proper subdomain for sending us your redirect. The example below is the rewrite rule that is in use for the link above.
You are now ready to go. With a little bit of configuration you can use one domain for both your website and your branded URL shortener.
New to the Dashboard is the ability to edit the long or shortened URL. Just click the edit button and make your changes on the dialog box that appears. It’s that easy.
You should note, however, if you change the short URL by changing the token any links that point to the old shortened URL will no longer work. So edit those with care.
