Small URL Service (tiny url) for SFX

Tags: sfx-menu, url-truncation, smallurl, tinyurl, sfx, elympics
Last Updated: Feb 19, 2010 17:27

• Description

  The Small URL Service for SFX uses a combination of AJAX and a locally installed cgi script to dynamically grab a small URL from a URL truncation service. While this example uses TRUNC -http://www.exlibrisgroup.org/display/CrossProductCC/TRUNC+-+URL+Truncator+%28tinyurl%29 - a locally developed small url link server, you could easily modify the cgi script to get a small url from a service like tinyurl.com, using their api.

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• Author: Mark Dehmlow
• Additional author(s):
• Institution: University of Notre Dame
• Year: 2010

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• License: GNU GPL version 3, Copyright 2010 University of Notre Dame/Hesburgh Libraries
• Link to terms: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html

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• Skill required for using this code:
  basic

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State

Stable

Programming language

Javascript and PERL

Software requirements

SFX

Screen captures

SFX Menu Before Selecting Service

SFX Menu After Selecting Service

Download

ajax javascript http://www.exlibrisgroup.org/download/attachments/26739465/ajax.js
cgi script http://www.exlibrisgroup.org/download/attachments/26739465/smallUrl.cgi

Working example

http://link.library.nd.edu/dlx5c http://link.library.nd.edu/0qibb

Using the following Ex Libris open interfaces

Templates

Release notes

Version 1

Initial Release

Installation instructions

The basic process that this uses can be ported to virtually any product with a little modification to the javascript, html, and the location of the cgi script.

There are three items needed to have this work in you SFX menu.

1. You need to install a cgi script (http://www.exlibrisgroup.org/download/attachments/26739465/smallUrl.cgi)
on your server in the instance/cgi directory. Usually, I create a local directory to house local
scripts which makes it easy to find them again and make sure they don't get overwritten.

1. You may need to alter the first line to point to your PERL path.

   #!/exlibris/sfx_ver/sfx_version_3/app/perl/bin/perl
   

   To get your PERL path, type 'which perl' at the command line.

   Because browsers implement ajax in a secure way, you must install this cgi script on your SFX server - ajax will not allow cross-domain querying. This is why the cgi script handles the call to the service api and hands the result back to the ajax instead of the ajax handling everything.

2. Next, install the generic ajax.js script (http://www.exlibrisgroup.org/download/attachments/26739465/ajax.js).
Install this in the instance/templates/js directory. Usually, I create a local directory to house local
scripts which makes it easy to find them again and make sure they don't get overwritten.

This is a generic javascript file that takes a couple of inputs - first, the URL for the cgi script you want
to invoke, the id of the html element that you want to insert the cgi's output into, and an insert type - right now
there is only one insert type - form_input, but can be expanded later.

3. Add HTML to two templates:

1. the call to the javascript must go in the <header> tag, templates/sfxmenu/sfxmenu.tmpl

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="<TMPL_VAR NAME='BASE'>/<TMPL_VAR NAME='INSTANCE' ESCAPE='HTML'>/js/sfxmenu/local/ajax.js"></script>

1. whichever template section you would like the user to get the small URL from

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="ajax_url" id="ajax_url" value="http://findtext.library.nd.edu:8889/ndu_local/cgi/public/local/smallUrl.cgi?url=[smallUrl API URL]&openurl=<TMPL_VAR NAME='OPENURL' ESCAPE='URL'>" />
<span style="font-size:110%;"><a href="#" onClick="javascript: getAJAX(document.getElementById('ajax_url').value,'url', 'form_input')">Get a permanent URL for this page</a></span>
<span id="url" style="display: none">
<input type="text" size="40" name="url_form" id="url_form" value="" onClick="javascript:document.getElementById('url').select();"/>
<br/>
</span>

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