Long URL Please

• JSON api
• javascript library
  • jQuery plugin
  • Adobe Air
  • flXHR

JSON api

URL: http://longurlplease.appspot.com/api/v1.1 (optional https)

Format: JSON (application/json)

Methods: GET

Examples from the command line

Calling API with multiple values for 'q' paramater.

curl 'http://www.longurlplease.com/api/v1.1?q=http://bit.ly/enAo&q=http://short.ie/bestxkcd'

{"http://short.ie\/bestxkcd": "http:\/\/razvan784.blogspot.com\/2007\/09\/best-of-xkcd.html",
 "http://bit.ly\/enAo": "http:\/\/www.boasas.com\/?c=1030"}

Calling API with a callback function.

curl 'http://www.longurlplease.com/api/v1.1?q=http://bit.ly/enAo&callback=withFunk'

withFunk({"http://bit.ly\/enAo": "http:\/\/www.boasas.com\/?c=1030"})

javascript library

To save you writing your own custom javascript - we provide a simple library that will cover most usages, and currently supports jQuery, flXHR and Adobe Air applications.

Usage

1. Load longurlplease javascript plugin

   <script type="text/javascript"
           src="http://www.longurlplease.com/js/longurlplease.js"></script>

2. Use the longurlplease lengthen function to replace short urls with their originals.

   longurlplease.lengthen();

longurlplease.lengthen takes an options hash

• transport - determines how requests are made to api, and how the json is parsed. It can have the following values
  
  
  • 'jquery' - uses jQuery getJSON
  • 'air' - uses air.URLLoader *
  • 'flxhr' - uses flensed.flXHR *

  * Requires JSON parser

• lengthenShortUrl - determines how the links to short URLs are altered when expanding.
  Takes either a function(aTag, longUrl), for custom expanding, or a string, to choose one of the built in methods.
  Default behaviour replaces href and changes link text to be a substring of the longUrl the same number of characters as the shortUrl link text.
  Available options are:
  • smart - swaps the href with the long url, and changes the link text using a snippet of the longurl the same length as the original link text (to try preserve layout)
  • href-only - leaves the link text, and only changes the url (hover to see url in status bar)
  • full - changes the href, and changes the link text to the entire long url.
  • text-and-title - changes the link text, similar to 'smart', and sets the link title to the long url. Good if you really want to still link thro the short urls (perhaps to maintain stats etc)
  Demo of the various options for lengthenShortUrl.
• element - to restrict lengthening to a subset of the document.
  Default is the entire document.

jQuery plugin

If you are using jQuery then the longurlplease javascript library will act as a plugin to jQuery adding functions to lengthen short urls.

Usage

Use longurlplease function to replace short urls with their originals.

$('#to-replace').longurlplease();

$.longurlplease();

$.longurlplease({lengthenShortUrl : function(aTag,longUrl){...}});

$("button#run-demo").click(function () {
  $(this).hide();
  $("#pleaseLengthenMe").longurlplease();
});

Adobe Air

More information in this blog post. Check out the sample project.

flXhr

flXHR allows cross domain client to server requests. It exposes a Javascript api identical to XMLHttpRequest but allows cross domain requests thanks to some flash goodness and crossdomain.xml policy files.

Using flxhr with longurlplease is a breeze - simply set the transport option to 'flxhr' and make sure you've the necessary flxhr files included in your page.

Check out this demo for a working example.