Laravel URL Shortener

Powerful URL shortening tool using different drivers for your Laravel projects

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Installation
  • Requirements
  • Install Package
  • Publish Config
• Usage
  • Instantiate Shortener
  • Changing driver
• Available Drivers
  • Bit.ly
  • TinyURL
  • Shorte.st
  • Is.gd
  • Cutt.ly
  • Hide.uri
  • Firebase
  • Ouo.io
• Changelog
• Security
• Credits
• License

Overview

A Laravel package that is used to shorten URLs according to your needs using your desired URL shortening drivers. Every driver will provide different features and function so do please check their documentation and pricing for different usages.

Installation

Requirements

The package has been developed to work with the following versions and minimum requirements:

• PHP 7.2 or higher
• Laravel 6.0 or higher

Install Pacakge

You can install the package via the latest Composer:

composer require codeofdigital/laravel-url-shortener

Publish Config

You can then publish the package's config file by using the following command:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="CodeOfDigital\LaravelUrlShortener\UrlShortenerServiceProvider"

Usage

The quickest way to get started with creating a shortened URL is by using the snippet below. The shorten() method will return a shortened URL link, and you can freely use it within your system.

$shortUrl = new UrlShortener();
$shortUrl->shorten('https://example.com');

Instantiate Shortener

The URL Shortener can be retrieved from the container in few ways:

$shortener = app('url.shortener');
// or ...
$shortener = url()->shortener();

This package also comes with the URL Shortener facade to instantiate the class:

use CodeOfDigital\LaravelUrlShortener\Facades\UrlShortener;

$shortUrl = UrlShortener::shorten('https://example.com');

You can also use dependency injection to inject in one of your controller's method:

use CodeOfDigital\LaravelUrlShortener\UrlShortener;

class MyController extends Controller
{
    public function myFunction(UrlShortener $shortener)
    {
        $shortener->shorten('https://example.com');
    }
}

Once you have instantiate the URL Shortener class, you can use the methods and shorten your URLs:

// This will set and create the driver instance
$shortener->driver('own-driver');

// This will return shortened URL in string
$shortener->shorten('https://example.com');

// This will return a promise object which can be used to resolve and retrieve shortened URL later on
$shortener->shortenAsync('https://example.com');

// Methods can be called from Laravel URL components
url()->shorten('https://example.com');

// Or
app('url.shortener')->shorten('https://example.com');

// Methods can be chained as well
$shortener->driver('own-driver')->shorten('https://example.com');

The URL Shortener provides the following methods to use:

Method	Description
shorten	Shorten the given URL
shortenAsync	Shorten the given URL asynchronously
driver	Set the driver and create the driver instance

Changing Driver

You can change the default driver by setting URL_SHORTENER_DRIVER={driver} in your environment file or publish the config file and make your changes there directly.

Available Drivers

There are total of 8 drivers available in this package. By default, this package will use Bit.ly as the main driver. Below is a list of drivers with their respective specs:

Service	API Token	Driver name	Analytics	Monetization
Bit.ly	yes	bit_ly	yes	no
TinyURL	yes	tiny_url	no	no
Shorte.st	yes	shorte_st	yes	yes
Is.gd	no	is_gd	yes	no
Cutt.ly	yes	cutt_ly	yes	no
HideUri	no	hide_uri	no	no
Firebase Links	yes	firebase	yes	no
Ouo.io	no	ouo_io	yes	yes

Bit.ly

Official Website

The main default driver for this package. It runs on Bit.ly API and currently using Version 4. To access the Bit.ly driver in this package, you need to provide generic access token for OAuth Authentication which can be retrieved in their Bit.ly Link Management Dashboard. You can parse in your own custom short URL domain (Paid Version) as well. Currently, there are 2 variables that needs to be set to use the driver.

Variable	Description
URL_SHORTENER_API_TOKEN	Bit.ly API token
URL_SHORTENER_PREFIX	Custom short URL domain, by default it's bit.ly

TinyURL

Official Website

Driver that runs on TinyURL API and currently using Version 2. To access the TinyURL driver in this package, you need to provide the API token for OAuth Authentication which can be retrieved in the TinyURL's account setting. You can parse in your own custom short URL domain (Paid Version) as well. TinyURL provides 3 free custom URL domain prefix which you can check out at their website. Currently, there are 2 variables that needs to be set to use the driver.

Variable	Description
URL_SHORTENER_API_TOKEN	TinyURL API token
URL_SHORTENER_PREFIX	Custom short URL domain, by default it's tinyurl.com

Shorte.st

Official Website

Driver that runs on Shorte.st API and currently using Version 1. To access the Shorte.st driver in this package, you need to provide an access token which can be retrieved after you have register for a Shorte.st account. This driver has monetization support where each link that has been clicked will earn a small amount of cash. Currently, there are only 1 variable that needs to be set to use the driver.

Variable	Description
URL_SHORTENER_API_TOKEN	Shorte.st API token

Is.gd

Official Website

Driver that runs on Is.gd API and currently using Version 1. No API token is needed for this API as there is no authentication required when sending API request. Currently, there are only 1 variable that needs to be set to use the driver. This variable determines whether statistic is enabled or disabled when shorten an URL link.

Variable	Description
URL_SHORTENER_ANALYTICS	Enable or disable statistics

Cutt.ly

Official Website

Driver that runs on Cutt.ly API and currently using Version 1. To access the Cutt.ly driver in this package, you need to provide an API token which can be retrieved in Cutt.ly dashboard. API token will be used within the query parameters as a method of authentication. This driver comes with analytics and statistics. Currently, there are only 1 variable that needs to be set to use the driver.

Variable	Description
URL_SHORTENER_API_TOKEN	Cutt.ly API token

Hide.uri

Official Website

Driver that runs on Hide.uri API and currently using Version 1. No API token is needed for this API as no authentication is required when sending API request. No variable is needed to setup the driver and you can use straight out of the box. Check the official website if there is any rate limiting on API calls.

Firebase Links

Official Website

Driver that runs on Google Firebase API and currently using Version 1. To access the Firebase driver in this package, you need to provide an access token and a URI prefix which can be retrieved in your Firebase console Web API Token. The URI prefix can be set using your own custom domain or any names and it must ends with .page.link. The suffix can have the value SHORT or UNGUESSABLE.

Variable	Description
URL_SHORTENER_API_TOKEN	Firebase API token
URL_SHORTENER_PREFIX	Custom URL prefix
URL_SHORTENER_SUFFIX	Creation method during URL shortening

Ouo.io

Official Website

Driver that runs on Ouo.io API and currently using Version 1. To access the Ouo.io driver in this package, provide the API token that is available in the Ouo.io account dashboard. This driver has monetization support where each link that has been clicked will earn a small amount of cash.

Variable	Description
URL_SHORTENER_API_TOKEN	Ouo.io API token

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information what has been changed in recent versions.

Security

If you discover any security related issues, please email one of the authors instead of using the issue tracker. You can find the author emails in the composer.json.

Credits

• Bryan Adam Loh

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.