A short URL always a recommended way to share the web page URL. It easy to remember and can be shared easily on the web. There are many URL Shortener services are available that allows you to convert long URL to short URL online. But the main disadvantages of these services are you won’t be able to use your own domain in the short URL. If you want to create short URL with your own domain name, you need to use custom URL Shortener<\/b>.<\/p>\n
URL Shortener<\/b> service takes a long URL and compresses it in a short link which is easier to share. You can create short URLs programmatically using PHP without any third party URL Shortener API<\/b>. In this tutorial, we will show you how to build a URL Shortener library and create short URL using PHP and MySQL<\/b>. With PHP URL Shortener library you can shorten the long URLs and use your own domain in the short URLs.<\/p>\n
In the example script shows the process to create a clean, short, and tiny link that can be shared easily via email or social media. The database is used to store the information about long and short URL. Also, you can track the number of hits the short URL gets by the visitors.<\/p>\n
We will use the database to handle the redirection based on the shortcode. The following SQL creates a The URL Shortener class<\/b> allow to programmatically create short URL using PHP and MySQL. This class uses PDO Extension<\/b> to work with the MySQL database, so, PDO object instance is required on initialization of Shortener class.<\/p>\n Static Variables:<\/b><\/p>\n Functions:<\/b><\/p>\nshort_urls<\/code> table in the MySQL database to store URL info (long URL, short code, hits, and create time).<\/p>\nCREATE<\/span> TABLE<\/span> `short_urls`<\/span> (\r\n `id`<\/span> int<\/span>(11<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span> AUTO_INCREMENT,\r\n `long_url`<\/span> varchar<\/span>(255<\/span>) COLLATE<\/span> utf8_unicode_ci NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n `short_code`<\/span> varchar<\/span>(25<\/span>) COLLATE<\/span> utf8_unicode_ci NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n `hits`<\/span> int<\/span>(11<\/span>) NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n `created`<\/span> datetime NOT<\/span> NULL<\/span>,\r\n PRIMARY KEY<\/span> (`id`<\/span>)\r\n) ENGINE<\/span>=InnoDB<\/span> DEFAULT<\/span> CHARSET<\/span>=utf8 COLLATE<\/span>=utf8_unicode_ci;<\/pre>\nURL Shortener Library (Shortener.class.php)<\/h2>\n
\n
$chars<\/code> – Allowed characters for the short code. (Characters group is separated by |<\/code>)<\/li>\n$table<\/code> – Database table name to store the URL and short code info.<\/li>\n$checkUrlExists<\/code> – Set to TRUE, to check whether the long URL exists.<\/li>\n$codeLength<\/code> – The length of the short code characters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
<?php\r\n<\/span>\/** \r\n * Class to create short URLs and decode shortened URLs\r\n * \r\n * @author CodexWorld.com <contact@codexworld.com> \r\n * @copyright Copyright (c) 2018, CodexWorld.com\r\n * @url https:\/\/www.codexworld.com\r\n *\/ \r\n<\/span>class <\/span>Shortener\r\n<\/span>{\r\n protected static <\/span>$chars <\/span>= <\/span>\"abcdfghjkmnpqrstvwxyz|ABCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYZ|0123456789\"<\/span>;\r\n protected static <\/span>$table <\/span>= <\/span>\"short_urls\"<\/span>;\r\n protected static <\/span>$checkUrlExists <\/span>= <\/span>false<\/span>;\r\n protected static <\/span>$codeLength <\/span>= <\/span>7<\/span>;\r\n\r\n protected <\/span>$pdo<\/span>;\r\n protected <\/span>$timestamp<\/span>;\r\n\r\n public function <\/span>__construct<\/span>(<\/span>PDO $pdo<\/span>){\r\n <\/span>$this<\/span>-><\/span>pdo <\/span>= <\/span>$pdo<\/span>;\r\n <\/span>$this<\/span>-><\/span>timestamp <\/span>= <\/span>date<\/span>(<\/span>\"Y-m-d H:i:s\"<\/span>);\r\n }\r\n\r\n public function <\/span>urlToShortCode<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>){\r\n if(empty(<\/span>$url<\/span>)){\r\n throw new <\/span>Exception<\/span>(<\/span>\"No URL was supplied.\"<\/span>);\r\n }\r\n\r\n if(<\/span>$this<\/span>-><\/span>validateUrlFormat<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>) == <\/span>false<\/span>){\r\n throw new <\/span>Exception<\/span>(<\/span>\"URL does not have a valid format.\"<\/span>);\r\n }\r\n\r\n if(<\/span>self<\/span>::<\/span>$checkUrlExists<\/span>){\r\n if (!<\/span>$this<\/span>-><\/span>verifyUrlExists<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>)){\r\n throw new <\/span>Exception<\/span>(<\/span>\"URL does not appear to exist.\"<\/span>);\r\n }\r\n }\r\n\r\n <\/span>$shortCode <\/span>= <\/span>$this<\/span>-><\/span>urlExistsInDB<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>);\r\n if(<\/span>$shortCode <\/span>== <\/span>false<\/span>){\r\n <\/span>$shortCode <\/span>= <\/span>$this<\/span>-><\/span>createShortCode<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>);\r\n }\r\n\r\n return <\/span>$shortCode<\/span>;\r\n }\r\n\r\n protected function <\/span>validateUrlFormat<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>){\r\n return <\/span>filter_var<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>, <\/span>FILTER_VALIDATE_URL<\/span>, <\/span>FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED<\/span>);\r\n }\r\n\r\n protected function <\/span>verifyUrlExists<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>){\r\n <\/span>$ch <\/span>= <\/span>curl_init<\/span>();\r\n <\/span>curl_setopt<\/span>(<\/span>$ch<\/span>, <\/span>CURLOPT_URL<\/span>, <\/span>$url<\/span>);\r\n <\/span>curl_setopt<\/span>(<\/span>$ch<\/span>, <\/span>CURLOPT_NOBODY<\/span>, <\/span>true<\/span>);\r\n <\/span>curl_setopt<\/span>(<\/span>$ch<\/span>, <\/span>CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER<\/span>, <\/span>true<\/span>);\r\n <\/span>curl_exec<\/span>(<\/span>$ch<\/span>);\r\n <\/span>$response <\/span>= <\/span>curl_getinfo<\/span>(<\/span>$ch<\/span>, <\/span>CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE<\/span>);\r\n <\/span>curl_close<\/span>(<\/span>$ch<\/span>);\r\n\r\n return (!empty(<\/span>$response<\/span>) && <\/span>$response <\/span>!= <\/span>404<\/span>);\r\n }\r\n\r\n protected function <\/span>urlExistsInDB<\/span>(<\/span>$url<\/span>){\r\n <\/span>$query <\/span>= <\/span>\"SELECT short_code FROM \"<\/span>.<\/span>self<\/span>