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ProjectArea51 URL Shortener

This is our short url/memo service which runs at a51.li.

Please note: This service is not publically available due to spam reasons.

An earlier incarnation got hacked by spammers so for the last few years this service has been locked down.

Please do not ask for access to this service as you'll almost certainly be declined. These instructions are here just incase I do allow external access to this service.

Calling the service

Access to any of the endpoints on this service requires an Authorization request header included with the API key included.

curl -H 'Authorization: {{key}}' http://api.area51.onl/shorturl/{{endpoint}}

Generating a unique ID

The genid endpoint generates a unique ID used by the service. This ID is unique so one generated by this endpoint will never be reused by another part of the service.

$ curl -H 'Authorization: {{key}}' http://api.area51.onl/shorturl/genid
"nUarQuLd"

Generating a short URL

This endpoint generates a short URL and makes it available on a51.li.

To use you need to make a http POST request with the request body containing a JSON object with one key url which contains the url to shorten.

$curl -H 'Authorization: {{key}}' -d '{"url":"{{url}}"}' http://api.area51.onl/shorturl/shorten
{"surl":"http://a51.li/nUarQuLd","token":"nUarQuLd","dest":"http://maidstoneweather.com/","type":"link"}

The returned JSON object describes the details of that URL

dest
The destination URL
surl
The shortened URL
token
The generated ID used in the shortened URL
type
Always link for results from this endpoint

Recipes

Shorten a url within a bash script

For this to work you need jq installed, e.g.
sudo apt-get install jq

This recipe will shorten a URL from within a bash script:

$ URL='http://area51.onl/'
$ SURL=$(curl -s -H 'Authorization: {{key}}' \
    -d "{\"url\":\"$URL\"}" \
    http://api.area51.onl/shorturl/shorten |\
     jq -r 'select(.surl!=null)|.surl')
$ echo $SURL
http://a51.li/nUafcFpK

The bash variable SURL will either contain a url or be empty if there was a failure.

Generating a note

This endpoint generates a note, consisting of a title and a body, displayed on lined paper

To use you need to make a http POST request with the request body containing a JSON object with optionally the title and the body of the note:

title
The title of the note
body
The note content
fixed
Optional, if present then a monospaced font is used for the note body
$curl -H 'Authorization: {{key}}' -d '{"title":"{{title}}","body":"{{body}}"}' http://api.area51.onl/shorturl/note
{"type":"note","dest":"http://a51.li/nUyyi8qr","token":"nUyyi8qr","surl":"http://a51.li/nUyyi8qr","title":"Test2","date":"Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:38:05 GMT"}

The returned JSON object describes the details of that URL

date
The date of the note
dest
The note URL
surl
The note URL
title
The note title
token
The generated ID used in the shortened URL
type
Always note for results from this endpoint

Recipes

Create a note of a file

For this to work you need jq installed, e.g.
sudo apt-get install jq

This recipe will generate a note on a51.li with a title from $TITLE and the content of the file $FILE:

$ URL='http://area51.onl/'
$ SURL=$(curl -s -H 'Authorization: {{key}}' \
    -d "{\"fixed\":true,\"title\":\"$TITLE\",\"body\":$(jq -R -s -c '.' $FILE)}" \
    http://api.area51.onl/shorturl/note | jq -r 'select(.surl!=null)|.surl')
$ echo $SURL
http://a51.li/nUymE5Na