Hello
I just released v0.9.2 of URLy and it now comes with a simple API that can be used by other app developers to shorten a long URL via URLy.
So, if you are a developer and want to shorten a URL in your own app, but don’t want to go through all the hustle of writing the necessary code yourself, you can just pass the URL to URLy via an intent. URLy will shorten it with the service that you passed along and your app will receive a boolean to indicate whether the shortening process was successful or not, the short URL and, if any errors occurred, a detailed error message about what went wrong.
Why would anyone integrate URLy in his own app? Well, there are several situations in which this makes sense. For example, imagine you write a Twitter app and want to allow your users to shorten URLs. You could write the code to shorten the URL by yourself, or you could just pass the long URL to URLy. You can pass along the service you want to use (you can use about 20 services via URLy, like bit.ly, goo.gl or TinyURL), so you could even give your users the choice to use any service they prefer or provide a custom URL and / or user credentials so that they can keep track of their shortened URLs. And: The integration into your app is pretty much seamless. After calling the intent, a nice and small progress window is shown which disappears automatically after shortening. So, no annoying new window that the users will have to close – they never leave your app.
Take the following screenshot as example. The app in the background is supposed to be your app, the progress window is what URLy shows while shortening:
More information and a detailed code example of how to start the intent and receive the shortened URL are available on my blog in the API section. It's really simple and integrated in a few minutes.
General information about URLy is available in this forum or on my blog.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
I just released v0.9.2 of URLy and it now comes with a simple API that can be used by other app developers to shorten a long URL via URLy.
So, if you are a developer and want to shorten a URL in your own app, but don’t want to go through all the hustle of writing the necessary code yourself, you can just pass the URL to URLy via an intent. URLy will shorten it with the service that you passed along and your app will receive a boolean to indicate whether the shortening process was successful or not, the short URL and, if any errors occurred, a detailed error message about what went wrong.
Why would anyone integrate URLy in his own app? Well, there are several situations in which this makes sense. For example, imagine you write a Twitter app and want to allow your users to shorten URLs. You could write the code to shorten the URL by yourself, or you could just pass the long URL to URLy. You can pass along the service you want to use (you can use about 20 services via URLy, like bit.ly, goo.gl or TinyURL), so you could even give your users the choice to use any service they prefer or provide a custom URL and / or user credentials so that they can keep track of their shortened URLs. And: The integration into your app is pretty much seamless. After calling the intent, a nice and small progress window is shown which disappears automatically after shortening. So, no annoying new window that the users will have to close – they never leave your app.
Take the following screenshot as example. The app in the background is supposed to be your app, the progress window is what URLy shows while shortening:
More information and a detailed code example of how to start the intent and receive the shortened URL are available on my blog in the API section. It's really simple and integrated in a few minutes.
General information about URLy is available in this forum or on my blog.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.