"t"
There are a few scripts already out there for shortening urls. Most of them rely on Apache’s mod_rewrite capability and require a MySQL database. Well, I run IIS and I didn’t want to use MySQL for something this simple. So I wrote “t,” using PHP and a Microsoft Access database. Now before you go Whoa! Access doesn’t scale, I know, but, I’m the only one who will be writing to this database and it should hold up just fine for everything else.
I run IIS and I didn’t want to use MySQL for something this simple.
Why did I write this? Because I figure the uptime with my webhost (99.9%) is about as good as the other services, and at least I feel that I have some control over my links.
I’ve linked to the code below. You can download it yourself and run it on your own server. It’s nothing fancy, but make some suggestions and we’ll see if we want to do more with it:
Installation
- Download and unzip the file.
- Copy t.php to the root folder of your web server.
- Copy t_url.mdb to the _private folder under your root folder. Create one if it’s not there.
- Modify t.php. You will need to enter your secret code so that only you can access t’s features. A cookie will be set so that you don’t have to enter the secret during every use.
- Open t.php in your browser and copy the automagic link to your Links toolbar.
How many links can you shorten with t? In theory, you’ll get about 230,000 links out of it before you have to expand to an additional character. I think that should do you.
Happy Linking!
