Right now my shortlink structure looks something like this:
example.com/?p=451
I would prefer it to look more like this:
example.com/abc123
Any ideas how I can alter the code to do just this?
4
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1Do you mean edit the core file itself? If so, that's probably not a good idea as it makes upgrading harder. A plugin would be the way to go.– chrisguitarguyCommented Aug 29, 2011 at 18:34
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@Christopher Davis This is true...Ahhh I was trying to avoid a plugin as many seem to slow down my sites.– MattCommented Aug 29, 2011 at 21:07
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3Plugins don't slow down sites. Overly complex plugins that try to do too much slow down sites. I run upwards of 50 plugins and have no issues. Just something to keep in mind: simple is better.– OttoCommented Aug 29, 2011 at 22:14
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How will you create this structure easily at the time of placing it?– Vishal Kumar SahuCommented Sep 13, 2017 at 22:27
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3 Answers
Okay, so, as mentioned in my comment to you: altering core files is not a good idea. But here is a plugin solution.
First we're going to create our own rewrite rules that rewrite s/123 (replace 123 with a post ID) to index.php?short=123. We'll also have to filter the WordPress query variables so we can use them later.
<?php
add_action( 'init', 'wpse26869_add_rewrites' );
function wpse26869_add_rewrites()
{
add_rewrite_rule( '^s/(\d+)$', 'index.php?short=$matches[1]', 'top' );
}
add_filter( 'query_vars', 'wpse26869_query_vars', 10, 1 );
function wpse26869_query_vars( $vars )
{
$vars[] = 'short';
return $vars;
}
The add_rewrite_rule call says "rewite s followed by a slash and a string of one or more digits to index.php?short=the_string_of_digits.
Then we can hook into template redirect and see if our query variable is there. If it is, we'll try and get a permalink out of it. If that fails, we'll throw a 404 error. Otherwise, we'll use `wp_redirect' to send folks to the actual post.
<?php
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'wpse26869_shortlink_redirect' );
function wpse26869_shortlink_redirect()
{
// bail if this isn't a short link
if( ! get_query_var( 'short' ) ) return;
global $wp_query;
$id = absint( get_query_var( 'short' ) );
if( ! $id )
{
$wp_query->is_404 = true;
return;
}
$link = get_permalink( $id );
if( ! $link )
{
$wp_query->is_404 = true;
return;
}
wp_redirect( esc_url( $link ), 301 );
exit();
}
Finally, we hook into get_shortlink to change how our rel="shortlink" appears in the <head> section of the site, and elsewhere. This new shortlink structure will reflect the rewrite rule we wrote above.
<?php
add_filter( 'get_shortlink', 'wpse26869_get_shortlink', 10, 3 );
function wpse26869_get_shortlink( $link, $id, $context )
{
if( 'query' == $context && is_single() )
{
$id = get_queried_object_id();
}
return home_url( 's/' . $id );
}
As a plugin: https://gist.github.com/1179555
answered Aug 29, 2011 at 22:10
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I'm actually having a little bit of trouble with this plugin. Right now my ShortUrl (without any plugin or modification to WordPress) looks like this structure: example.com/?p=451 How can I get it to look like this: example.com/short451 (I guess 451 is the post id?)– MattCommented Sep 2, 2011 at 13:37
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You need to change your permalink settings to pretty permalinks.
settings > permalinksCommented Sep 2, 2011 at 14:00 -
do I need to somehow activate this option? I don't see it in settings > permalinks– MattCommented Sep 2, 2011 at 15:46
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Nope, just select something other than default for your permalink structure and it should work. Commented Sep 2, 2011 at 16:18
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1One redirect happens.
example.com/s/121is rewritten, not redirected. The function hooked intotemplate_redirectactually does the redirect from short URL to the canonical permalink. Commented Jul 2, 2012 at 4:56
Aside from @ChristopherDavis's answer, you can also do it in a PHP independent way, using .htaccess. Simply add this rule:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^s/(\d+)$ index.php?p=$1 [L]
Alternative without mod_rewrite, using mod_alias:
RedirectMatch Permanent ^/s/(\d+)$ /?p=$1
The only problem is, two redirects happen here (instead of 1) — (for example) if user visits http://example.com/s/121/ he is redirected by the web server to http://example.com/index.php?p=121/ and then by WordPress to the actual permalink of the post.
The advantage is, this never breaks! Plugins may break, but this does not.
PS: I use this (short link structure would be http://example.com/-121 where 121 is post ID):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^-(\d+)$ index.php?p=$1 [L]
using Redirection plugin, you can add a redirect which achieves this without touching PHP or .htaccess.
prerequisites
- install and set up Redirection plugin
add redirect
- go to Tools > Redirection
- click add new button
redirect parameters
- source url: ^/s/(\d+)$
- url options (located far right): choose regex
- target url: /index.php?p=$1
this method has the following advantages
- no PHP coding, no .htaccess editing
- access tracking - you can see how many are hitting the shortlink redirect right from the dashboard
- 404 logging - helps with troubleshooting in case you mess up the regex
- flexibility - if you want, you could create multiple shortlink redirects based on post type or source (e.g. email vs. print vs. media vs. youtube) for tracking purposes
- you can optionally make any rule case-insensitive - this is especially useful if you are counting on people to enter this URL manually
notes
thanks to @its_me for the .htaccess method as this gave me the exact regex expressions i needed
