Build your own URL shortener in 15 minutes
Sebastiaan Deckers
Posted on January 20, 2019
The Commons Host CDN platform recently introduced support for custom HTTP response headers and redirect rules. Let's use these features to build our own private URL shortener, with support for a custom domain name and Google Analytics tracking. Did I mention this is all free of charge and 100% open source?
Let's get started.
You could use an existing Commons Host site but this tutorial shows how to get started from scratch. These instructions are intended for Mac OS or Linux.
Project Directory
Start by creating the following project directory structure, then locally installing the Commons Host CLI and short tools with NPM.
short/ // Project directory
| CNAME // File
| commonshost.json // File
| package.json // File
\ public/ // Directory
\ redirect/ // Directory
\ index.html // File
The project directory is self contained and does not make any global changes to your system. Create it anywhere you prefer, for example in your home directory (~).
Run these commands from a terminal to create the project directory.
$ mkdir -p short/public/redirect
$ cd short
$ touch CNAME commonshost.json public/redirect/index.html
$ npm init -y
$ npm install -D @commonshost/cli @commonshost/short
Domain Name and DNS
Set up your domain name.
Use either a free Commons Host subdomain, or your own registered custom domain name.
Option A) Free *.commons.host subdomain
Edit the CNAME file with your free Commons Host subdomain.
$ echo "your-sub-domain.commons.host" >| CNAME
Replace your-sub-domain.commons.host with any subdomain you like. This tutorial uses short.commons.host, so choose a unique name for your own URL shortening service.
No additional DNS configuration is required with a Commons Host subdomain. The DNS setup for all *.commons.host subdomains already has a wildcard CNAME record pointing to commons.host.
Option B) Custom Domain Name
Edit the CNAME file with your registered custom domain name.
$ echo "your-name.example" >| CNAME
Replace your-name.example with your actual registered custom domain name.
You must also create a CNAME record pointing from your-name.example to commons.host at your DNS provider's dashboard. That CNAME record will direct users to their nearest Commons Host edge server.
Note: With Cloudflare DNS you may encounter a redirect loop when using Flexible SSL (the default setting). Commons Host enforces full TLS and never serves unencrypted content. To solve this you can either:
- Disable the Cloudflare CDN for your CNAME record by setting: DNS > DNS Records > Status > DNS Only
- Or, leave the Cloudflare CDN enabled but configure the setting: Crypto > SSL > Full SSL
Configuration File
Save this JSON boilerplate as: commonshost.json
This contains the necessary custom header rule and a placeholder for the URL redirects.
{
"hosts": [
{
"headers": [
{
"uri": "/redirect/{?url,}",
"fields": {
"Refresh": "2; {url}"
}
}
],
"redirects": []
}
]
}
Redirect Page
Save this HTML boilerplate as: public/redirect/index.html
To set up Google Analytics replace GA_TRACKING_ID in the code below with your Google Analytics tracking ID (e.g. UA-12345678-1). See the Google Analytics documentation for details.
Feel free to customise or remove any Commons Host branding. You have full control over your website.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=GA_TRACKING_ID"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments)}
gtag('js', new Date())
gtag('config', 'GA_TRACKING_ID')
</script>
<title>Redirecting</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<style>
body { text-align: center; font-family: sans-serif; }
a { color: black; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<main>
<h1>Redirecting</h1>
<p id="location"></p>
</main>
<footer>
Powered by 🐑 <a href="https://commons.host" rel="noopener">Commons Host</a>.
</footer>
<script>
if ('URLSearchParams' in window) {
const params = new URLSearchParams(location.search)
if (params.has('url')) {
const to = document.createElement('a')
const url = params.get('url')
to.href = url
to.textContent = url
document.querySelector('#location').appendChild(to)
}
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Sign Up to Commons Host
Create a Commons Host account via the CLI tool. This saves a token in ~/.commonshost that keeps you authenticated on this machine.
$ npx commonshost signup
Enter an email address, username, and password to create your account.
? Email address: sebdeckers83@gmail.com
? Username: seb
? Password: [hidden]
✔ Registering account
✔ Creating new authentication token
✔ Saving credentials
Shorten a URL
The short command creates a new redirect rule and prints the resulting short URL.
$ npx short https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_words
🔗 https://short.commons.host/1302
The redirects section of your commonshost.json configuration file should now contain something like this:
"redirects": [
{
"from": "/1302",
"to": "/redirect/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLongest_words"
}
]
Tip: Run npx short --help to see more advanced options. For example the --emoji option will generate random emoji for shortened URLs. 🤨
Deploy to Commons Host
$ npx commonshost deploy
To cancel, press Ctrl+C.
Detected options file: commonshost.json
To override, use: --options "path"
Deploying:
Directory: ~/short
File count: 1
Total size: 1.84 kB
URL: https://short.commons.host
Options: ~/short/commonshost.json
✔ Uploading
Finished! Enjoy your personal URL shortener powered by Commons Host.
Summary
To shorten another URL, just repeat the final two commands from within the project directory:
npx short https://some.really.long.url.example/foo/bar.htmlnpx commonshost deploy --confirm
Check the server documentation to learn how to customise your Commons Host site further, like setting up a 404 fallback HTML page.
Thanks to @donavon for the feedback on this tutorial.
Posted on January 20, 2019
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