Recently, I’ve been working on a URL-shortening service similar to tinyurl.com. It’s called Reque.st and features a sweet-looking homepage, some Ajax’y goodness and a "custom pointer" option.
Using it is incredibly simple. All you need to do is enter the long url which you want to shorten and hit "shorten" – you also have the option of specifying a "pointer" which can be related to the URL. For example if I have a long URL linking to a PDF report:
http://very-very-long-url.com/pdfsection/pdf/2008/01/01/pdf/newer/ ?specify=129483&isThisVeryLong=true&borderOfTyping=yep#ImportantPartOfThePDF
I could shorten it and add a custom pointer of "my-pdf-report" so to get to the above URL you would go to:
http://reque.st/my-pdf-report
Useful, huh!?
Here’s a demo:
The site runs on PHP and MySQL (Database) and uses the jQuery JavaScript library for the UI enhancements.
Similar to all of the other URL-shortening services out there Reque.st offers a very basic API for developers/programmers. Look – so simple: http://reque.st/create.api.php?url=http://www.google.com.
> Simply append the required URL and pointer (optional) to the script address: http://reque.st/create.api.php?url=http://YourURL.com&pointer=ThisIsOptionalByTheWay > The script will either return the shortened URL (hopefully) or an error: http://reque.st/ThisIsOptionalByTheWay > And if you haven't specified a "pointer": http://reque.st/74
Bookmarklet
There is also a bookmarklet available: DRAG THIS TO YOUR BOOKMARKS PANEL and rename it. (then click on it whenever you want to shorten a URL!)
Issues/Bugs
Please let me know if you spot any bugs or issues, whether they be asthetic or function related.
Hi James,
I like what you’ve done: simple service + API + optional pointer.
Two things I want to give as feedback:
a) The pointer cannot start with a number. Too bad!
b) The bookmarklet does not support adding the pointer.
I tried by simply appending &pointer=blah to the URL, and it returned a shortened URL without the pointer.
Would be nice if you can fix that.
Keep up the good work on your blog.
Just stumbled on it today, adding RSS to my Google Reader.
Really like your jQuery stuff and your style.
-Aaron
It looks great, but unfortunately I don’t see much of a future in competition with massive services like bit.ly and tr.im.
However, simply because it’s different, I’ll try it out with some of my PHP applications; hopefully it doesn’t go offline at any point.