Firefly

Firefly is a URL-shortener app built using Sinatra. It can be easily hosted on Heroku and other platforms.

Installation

sudo gem install firefly

After you have installed the Firefly gem you should create a config.ru file that tells your webserver what to do. Here is a sample config.ru:

require 'rubygems'
require 'firefly'

disable :run

app = Firefly::Server.new do
  # The domain you use for shortening.
  set :hostname,    "localhost:9393"
  # set :hostname,    "aj.gs"

  # Used for authenticating you.
  set :api_key,     "changeme"

  # Default MySQL:
  set :database,    "mysql://root:password@localhost/firefly"

  # Use Sqlite3: gem install dm-sqlite-adapter
  # set :database,    "sqlite3://#{Dir.pwd}/firefly.sqlite3"

  # Set the number of recent urls to show in the overview.
  # Defaults to 25
  # set :recent_urls, 10

  # Set the tweet template.
  # The tag %short_url% will be replaced with the actual url.
  #
  # Default: Check this out: %short_url%
  # set :tweet,       "I loved this: %short_url% - Go check it out now!"

  # If you want to enable 'share to sharing targets'

  # A secure key to be used with 'share to sharing targets'
  # set :sharing_key,    "set-a-long-secure-key-here"

  # Currently only twitter, hyves and facebook are supported
  # set :sharing_targets, [:twitter, :hyves, :facebook]

  # Set the TLDs (in URLs) that are allowed to be shortened
  # set :sharing_domains, ["example.com", "mydomain.com"]

  # Set your session secret here.
  # If you're unsure what to use, open IRB console and run `'%x' % rand(2**255)`
  set :session_secret, "change-me"
end

run app

Next you can start your web server. You may try thin:

thin start -R config.ru

Now visit http://:hostname/ and enter your :api_key. Happy URL shortening!

Configuration

All configuration is done in config.ru.

:hostname sets the hostname to use for shortened URLs.
:api_key sets the API key. This key is required when posting new URLs
:database a database URI that DataMapper can understand.
:recent_urls sets the number of URLs to show in the overview. Default: 25.
:tweet set the template to use for tweets. Default: "Check this out: %short_url%"
:sharing_key set this to something long and secure, used for creating 'share to sharing targets' links.
:sharing_targets set to [:twitter, :hyves, :facebook] if you want to enable sharing to twitter, hyves or facebook
:sharing_domains set to an array of TLDs. Only urls shared in those domains will be allowed. Set to an empty array ([]) if you want to accept all domains.

It's possible to use all kinds of backends with DataMapper. Sqlite3 and MySQL have been tested, but others may work as well.

Usage

Simply visit http://:hostname/ and enter your :api_key. You can now shorten URLs.

Using the API

You may also use the API to automate URL shortening. Here's how.

Adding a URL is done by doing a simple POST request that includes the URL and your API key.

curl -d "url=http://ariejan.net" -d "api_key=test" http://localhost:3000/api/add

If you're on a MacOSX you could add the following function to your ~/.profile to automate URL shortening:

shorten(){
  URL=$1
  SHORT_URL=`curl -s -d "url=$URL&api_key=test" http://localhost:3000/api/add`
  echo $SHORT_URL | pbcopy

  echo "-- $URL => $SHORT_URL"
  echo "Short URL copied to clipboard."
}

After you restart Terminal.app (or at least reload the .profile file) you can use it like this:

$ shorten http://ariejan.net
-- http://ariejan.net => http://aj.gs/1
Short URL copied to clipboard.

Using the social features (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

The share to sharing targets feature allows you to create custom links on your site. When clicked, the specified URL will be shortened and the user will be redirect to Twitter to share the new short URL.

GET /api/share
POST /api/share

Parameters:
  url - Long URL to share (required)
  key - The sharing key, specified in `config.ru` (required)
  target - Target to share to. E.g. `twitter` or `facebook` (required)
  title - Title of text to use in the tweet (optional)

Bugs, Feature Requests, etc.

Feel free to fork Firefly and create patches for it. Here are some basic instructions:

Fork Firefly
Create a topic branch - git checkout -b my_branch
Write tests and code
Push to your branch - git push origin my_branch
Create a GitHub Pull Request so I can merge your changes
That's it!

Contributors

Ariejan de Vroom - Original author
Matthew Boeh - Contributor
Joost Saanen - Contributor

License

Copyright (c) 2009 Ariejan de Vroom

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

tg-firefly

Development

Runtime