YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

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About YOURLS

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What is YOURLS

YOURLS stands for Your Own URL Shortener. It is a small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service (a la TinyURL or Bitly).

Running your own URL shortener is fun, geeky and useful: you own your data and don't depend on third-party services. It's also a great way to add branding to your short URLs, instead of using the same public URL shortener everyone uses.

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YOURLS Features

Free and open-source software.
Private (your links only) or Public (everybody can create short links, fine for an intranet)
Sequential or custom URL keywords
Handy bookmarklets to easily shorten and share links
Awesome stats: historical click reports, referrers tracking, visitors geo-location
Neat Ajaxed interface
Terrific Plugin architecture to easily implement new features
Cool developer API
Full jsonp support
Friendly installer
Sample files to create your own public interface and more

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Screenshots

Main admin dashboard

Stats for each short URL

See a live example of YOURLS stats on https://yourls.org/cookie+

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Download

Download YOURLS from GitHub

You can follow YOURLS' development on the commit history and get current development build

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Credits

YOURLS is made by awesome people.

Keep up to date: read the official YOURLS Blog

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Configuration (in `user/config.php`)

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MySQL settings

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

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Site options

YOURLS_SITE
Your (hopefully short) domain URL, no trailing slash, lowercase. If you pick the non-www version of your domain, don't use the www version in your browser (and vice-versa)
Example: define( 'YOURLS_SITE', 'http://ozh.in' );
YOURLS_HOURS_OFFSET
Timezone GMT offset
Example: define( 'YOURLS_HOURS_OFFSET', '-5' );
YOURLS_PRIVATE
Private means the admin area will be protected with login/pass as defined below. See Private or Public for more.
Example: define( 'YOURLS_PRIVATE', 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: define( 'YOURLS_UNIQUE_URLS', 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 https://yourls.org/cookie
Example: define( 'YOURLS_COOKIEKEY', '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
Passwords can either be in plain text, or encrypted: see https://yourls.org/userpassword for more information.
Example: 'joe' => 'mypassword'

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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'

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Optional settings

YOURLS_PRIVATE_INFOS
If YOURLS_PRIVATE is set to true, you can still make stat pages public. To do so, define with:
define('YOURLS_PRIVATE_INFOS', false);
YOURLS_PRIVATE_API
If YOURLS_PRIVATE is set to true, you can still make your API public. To do so, define 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.

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Advanced settings

You can install YOURLS behind a firewall or a proxy: see Proxy Support
File includes/Config/Config.php contains a few more undocumented but self explanatory and commented settings. Add them to your own config.php if you know what you're doing.
There are numerous tips and guides on the Wiki, be sure to read them.

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YOURLS' API

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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
Authentify either with login/password or using a secure passwordless mechanism

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Usage

You need to send parameters to http://your-own-domain-here.com/yourls-api.php either via GET or POST (remember to URL-encode parameters if via GET). These parameters are:

A valid username / password pair, or your signature (see Passwordless API requests)
The requested action: "shorturl" (get short URL for a link), "expand" (get long URL of a shorturl), "url-stats" (get stats about one short URL), "stats" (get stats about your links) or "db-stats" (get global link and click count)
With action = "shorturl" :
- the url to shorten
- optional keyword and title for custom short URLs
- output format: either "jsonp", "json", "xml" or "simple"
With action = "expand" :
- the shorturl to expand (can be either 'abc' or 'http://site/abc')
- output format: either "jsonp", "json", "xml" or "simple"
With action = "url-stats" :
- the shorturl for which to get stats (can be either 'abc' or 'http://site/abc')
- output format: either "jsonp", "json" or "xml"
With action = "stats" :
- the filter: either "top", "bottom" , "rand" or "last"
- the limit (maximum number of links to return)
- output format: either "jsonp", "json" or "xml"
With action = "db-stats" :
- output format: either "jsonp", "json" or "xml"

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Sample requests

Example of a GET request with Javascript (using jQuery) to shorten a URL

var api_url  = 'http://sho.rt/yourls-api.php';
var response = $.get( api_url, {
    username: "your_username",
    password: "your_password",
    action:   "shorturl",
    format:   "json",
    url:      "http://ozh.org/"
    },
    // callback function that will deal with the server response
    function( data) {
        // now do something with the data, for instance show new short URL:
        alert(data.shorturl);
    }
);

Example of a POST request with PHP to expand a short URL

<?php
$username = 'your_username';
$password = 'your_password';
$api_url =  'http://sho.rt/yourls-api.php';

// Init the CURL session
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $api_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);            // No header in the result
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); // Return, do not echo result
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);              // This is a POST request
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, array(     // Data to POST
        'shorturl' => 'ozh',
        'format'   => 'json',
        'action'   => 'expand',
        'username' => $username,
        'password' => $password
    ));

// Fetch and return content
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Do something with the result. Here, we echo the long URL
$data = json_decode( $data );
echo $data->longurl;

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Sample returns

Sample return in JSON format for the shorturl action

{
  "url": {
    "keyword": "ozh",
    "url": "http:\/\/ozh.org",
    "title": "Ozh RICHARD \u00ab ozh.org",
    "date": "2014-10-24 16:01:39",
    "ip": "127.0.0.1"
  },
  "status": "success",
  "message": "http:\/\/ozh.org added to database",
  "title": "Ozh RICHARD \u00ab ozh.org",
  "shorturl": "http:\/\/sho.rt\/1f",
  "statusCode": 200
}

Sample return in XML format for the expand action

<result>
    <keyword>ozh</keyword>
    <shorturl>http://sho.rt/ozh</shorturl>
    <longurl>http://ozh.org/</longurl>
    <message>success</message>
    <statusCode>200</statusCode>
</result>

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A server with mod_rewrite enabled
At least PHP 5.6
At least MYSQL 5
Note: YOURLS can also run on Nginx, IIS and Cherokee

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Server recommendations

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

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Limitations

Maximum length of custom keyword is 200 characters
That makes about 8 sexdecillions of centillions of available URLs (seriously. That's a 355-digit number).

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Difference Between Base 36 And Base 62 Encoding

Base 36 encoding uses 0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz for short URLs
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 is the default and should be picked if you're not sure.

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Getting a short domain name for your YOURLS install

Unless you plan on making it public and as popular as bit.ly, any shared hosting will be fine. Ozh runs all his YOURLS instance on Dreamhost and it works just great.
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.

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YOURLS needs its own .htaccess

You cannot install YOURLS and, say, WordPress, in the same directory. Both need to handle URLs differently and need their own .htaccess file.
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")

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If YOURLS generates 404 for your short URLs

Make sure mod_rewrite is enabled with your Apache server
Make sure your .htaccess file looks like this one
Eventually, check your server Apache configuration allows use of .htaccess (AllowOverride All directive, ask your server admin)

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Random versus sequential short URLs

Out of the box, YOURLS generates sequential short URLS (ie ab31, then ab32 and so on)
If you prefer random short URLs (ie j3kz1 then 13hz7 like Bitly does), just activate the plugin that comes with YOURLS.

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"Stats don't update as I think they should", "difference with Google Analytics", etc...

Out of the box, YOURLS updates traffic stats every time a short URL is requested. Period.
This said, some clients (like indexing bots, your internet browser) may skip requesting a short URL if they have the final destination known in cache.
Conversely, other stat tools may use different techniques to track hits (using javascript or not, using IP adress, filtering multiple requests by same client, etc...)
Bottom line: your mileage may vary with different tools, but there is no bug in YOURLS regarding that matter.

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There is no index page at the root of the install

Indeed. It's intended. It's up to the user to make what they need. Some will redirect the root to a different place, some make a public interface for anyone to shorten links, some make a portfolio. You make it.
If you want to make a public interface and run your own little bitly.com, there's a sample file provided as an example: sample-public-front-page.txt. This implies important issues to deal with: spam, performance and security. Read Public Shortening for important information.

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Uppercase letters in short URLs are eaten up, eg "`OmgOzh`" becomes "`mgzh`" !

Indeed. It's intented if you selected Base 36 (see above). Letters that don't belong to the character set, eg @#! or ABC, are removed.
If you want to force lowercase, you'll need a plugin.

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Feedback, feature requests and bug reporting

Please don't get in touch directly by mail or Twitter. Please.
Read all the wiki documents.
Search in all the issues, open and closed.
Eventually raise a new issue. To do so, please read the contribute guidelines. Thanks!

About YOURLS

What is YOURLS

YOURLS Features

Screenshots

Download

Credits

Fresh Install

Install Guides

Upgrade

Configuration (in user/config.php)

MySQL settings

Site options

URL Shortening settings

Optional settings

Advanced settings

Plugins for YOURLS

Plugins?

Documentation

YOURLS' API

Features

Usage

Sample requests

Sample returns

Sample file

Expand the API

FAQ

Server requirements

Server recommendations

Limitations

Difference Between Base 36 And Base 62 Encoding

Getting a short domain name for your YOURLS install

YOURLS needs its own .htaccess

If YOURLS generates 404 for your short URLs

Random versus sequential short URLs

"Stats don't update as I think they should", "difference with Google Analytics", etc...

There is no index page at the root of the install

Uppercase letters in short URLs are eaten up, eg "OmgOzh" becomes "mgzh" !

Feedback, feature requests and bug reporting

Community

Resources

Showcase

YOURLS reviews

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

YOURLS and other platforms or frameworks

YOURLS works with your favorite software or device

More stuff to do with YOURLS

"Celebrity endorsements", sort of.

Configuration (in `user/config.php`)

Uppercase letters in short URLs are eaten up, eg "`OmgOzh`" becomes "`mgzh`" !