goo.gl is shutting down (see Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available - Google Developers Blog). So links on your forum that include goo.gl links will be broken after August 25th, 2025.
I developed this script for a client. It took much, much longer than I billed him for and longer than I care to admit.
It finds all of the posts that contain goo.gl and then (if they aren’t maps.app.goo.gl or maps.goo.gl) attempts to replace them with the URL that goo.gl returns. It uses the post revisor, so you can see that it was updated and why and you can revert it if you want. I have tried to make it as failsafe as possible, but use at your own risk.
If you don’t know how to run this script, you probably should not do it yourself. If you need help making it work and have a budget, contact me or ask in Marketplace.
If you use it and have suggestions for how to make it better, you please reply and/or edit it as you see fit.
URL_CACHE ||= {}
def resolve_url_simple(short_url)
uri = URI.parse(short_url)
response = Net::HTTP.get_response(uri)
if response.is_a?(Net::HTTPRedirection)
response['location']
else
short_url # Return original if no redirection
end
rescue
short_url # Return original if there was an error
end
def resolve_url(short_url)
short_url.gsub!(/http:/,"https:")
# Check if the URL is already in the cache
return URL_CACHE[short_url] if URL_CACHE.key?(short_url)
begin
uri = URI.parse(short_url + "?si=1")
response = Net::HTTP.get_response(uri)
# Resolve the URL if it's a redirection
resolved_url = if response.is_a?(Net::HTTPRedirection)
response['location']
else
short_url # Return original if no redirection
end
sleep 1
# Store the resolved URL in the cache
URL_CACHE[short_url] = resolved_url
resolved_url
rescue
# Store the original URL in the cache in case of an error
URL_CACHE[short_url] = short_url
short_url
end
end
def replace_goo_gl_links(text)
goo_gl_regex = %r{(?<=^|[\[\]\(\)\s])(https?://)?goo\.gl(/[a-zA-Z0-9]+)+}
text.gsub(goo_gl_regex) do |match|
if match.include?('maps.app.goo.gl')
match
else
full_url = match.start_with?('http') ? match : "https://#{match}"
print "FIXING!!: #{match} -----> "
fixed = resolve_url(full_url)
puts fixed
fixed
end
end
end
def replace_all_goo_gl_links
system_user= User.find(-1)
goo_go = Post.where("raw LIKE '%goo.gl%'")
total_posts = goo_go.count
puts "Found #{total_posts} posts to check"
count = 0
goo_go.find_each do |post|
count += 1
# puts "Processing #{count}. #{Discourse.base_url}/t/#{post.topic_id}/#{post.post_number}"
print "."
# for reasons unclear, trying to update posts in these topics crashed rails
# next if [145478,64885,84408].include? post.topic_id
# find goo.gl links and the the URL to see what it redirects to
new_raw = replace_goo_gl_links(post.raw)
if new_raw != post.raw
revision_options = {
edit_reason: "Fix goo.gl links",
bypass_bump: true
}
begin
puts "Revising (#{count}/#{total_posts}) #{Discourse.base_url}/t/#{post.topic_id}/#{post.post_number}"
if !post.topic # posts in delted topics have no topic and break PostRevisor
post.topic = Topic.with_deleted.find_by(id: post.topic_id)
next if !post.topic
end
PostRevisor.new(post).revise!(system_user, raw: new_raw, **revision_options)
rescue => e
puts "cannot revise (number: #{count} #{Discourse.base_url}/t/#{post.topic_id}/#{post.post_number}): #{e}"
end
sleep 15
end
end
end
