NAME
WWW::Shorten - Abstract interface to URL shortening sites.
SYNOPSIS
use WWW::Shorten 'EkDk';
use WWW::Shorten 'MakeAShorterLink';
use WWW::Shorten 'Metamark';
use WWW::Shorten 'NotLong';
use WWW::Shorten 'Shorl';
use WWW::Shorten 'ShortLink';
use WWW::Shorten 'SmLnk';
use WWW::Shorten 'SnipURL';
use WWW::Shorten 'TinyClick';
use WWW::Shorten 'TinyURL';
# Individual modules have have their
# own syntactic varations.
# See the documentation for the particular
# module you intend to use for details, trips
# and traps.
$short_url = makeashorterlink($long_url);
$long_url = makealongerlink($short_url);
# If you don't like the function names:
use WWW::Shorten 'SnipURL', ':short';
$short_url = short_link( $long_url );
$long_url = long_link( $short_url );ABSTRACT
A Perl interface to URL shortening sites. These sites maintain databases of long URLs, each of which has a unique identifier.
DESCRIPTION
The function makeashorterlink will call the relevant web site passing it your long URL and will return the shorter version.
The function makealongerlink does the reverse. makealongerlink will accept as an argument either the full shortened URL or just the identifier.
If anything goes wrong, then either function will return undef.
EXPORT
makeashorterlink, makealongerlink
Or, if you specify :short on the import line, you instead get short_link and long_link. If you explicitly want the default set, use :default.
COMMAND LINE PROGRAM
A very simple program called shorten is supplied in the distribution's bin folder. This program takes a URL and gives you a shortened version of it.
SERVICES
EkDk http://add.redir.ek.dk/
MakeAShorterLink http://makeashorterlink.com/
Metamark http://xrl.us/
NotLong http://notlong.com/
Shorl http://shorl.com/
ShortLink http://shortlink.us/
SmLnk http://smlnk.org/
SnipURL http://snipurl.com/
TinyClick http://tinyclick.com/
TinyURL http://tinyurl.com/See http://notlong.com/links/ for a comparison of most of them.
THANKS
Dave Cross for WWW::MakeAShorterLink
Alex Page for the original LWP hacking on which Dave based his code.
Simon Batistoni for giving the makealongerlink idea to Dave.
Eric Hammond for writing the NotLong variant.
Shashank Tripathi for providing both SnipURL.com and advice on the module.
Kevin Gilbertson (Gilby) supplied information on the TinyURL API interface.
Matt Felsen (mattf) wanted shorter function names.
Ask Bjoern Hansen for providing both Metamark.net and advice on the module.
Martin Thurn for helping me notice a bug and for a suggestion regarding MASL.pm.
And particularly thanks to all providers of these services.
BUGS, REQUESTS, COMMENTS
Please report any requests, suggestions or bugs via the system at http://rt.cpan.org/, or email <bug-WWW-Shorten@rt.cpan.org>. This makes it much easier for me to track things and thus means your problem is less likely to be neglected.
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright © Iain Truskett, 2002-2003. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
AUTHOR
Iain Truskett <spoon@cpan.org>
Based on WWW::MakeAShorterLink by Dave Cross <dave@dave.org.uk>