Share Link Shortener

[Discourse]

	Summary	Share Link Shortener adds a checkbox in the share link modal that replaces the share link with a shorter version containing only the IDs of the topic and post.
	Preview	Preview on Discourse Theme Creator
	Repository	https://github.com/discourse/discourse-share-link-shortener/
	New to Discourse Themes?	Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes

Install this theme component

As this is an official theme component maintained by the Discourse team, support, bug, ux, and feature requests can be made in the respective categories here on Meta, and tagged with the appropriate theme component tag. Click on a link below to get one started.

 Support  Bug  UX  Feature

Features

This theme component is especially useful when sharing Discourse links on platforms that limit the maximum number of characters in a message, like Twitter or Mastodon.

Screenshots & video

In action:

Settings

Name	Description
remember preference	Remember if the user prefers shorter links using their browser’s local storage.

Translation	Defualt
short_link_label	Short link

Development History

This feature was requested here: Post Sharing - ability to convert the URL to the short version

Hosted by us? Theme components are available to use on our Standard, Business, and Enterprise plans.

Last edited by @JammyDodger 2024-06-15T11:37:35Z

Check document

Perform check on document:

[Heliosurge (Dan DeMontmorency)]

That is pretty sweet! Thanks for making this!

[UnitedFreedom (James)]

Thank you so much for making this very useful theme component <3

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

I noticed a slight issue. The checkbox creation prevents the link text input content from being selected by default, and unfortunately, I don’t know how to fix it…

That’s a minor issue though.

[md-misko]

Shouldn’t the shortened link also include slug placeholder like this:

https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/251965/4

I’m pretty sure there used to be issues when linking to the forum from external sites using the shortened link without the slug?

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

I’m not aware of these issues.

I remember seeing the formatting without any slug in a piece of official code yesterday or the day before… I don’t remember where but I thought “how, they use the syntax without the /-/ here” which seemed to be a clue that such URLs seem to be fine.

If you happen to find a link about potential problems, that would be great

[md-misko]

Can't navigate back when using urls without post number

Yes please, keep the slug and the id: For example https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-navigate-back-when-using-urls-without-post-number/197060 That way the link will remain stable. Also this will work but it is not as pretty imo and will cause a redirect. https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/197060

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

Thanks!

Either I’m not understanding the issue, or it’s not happening anymore.

Clicking https://meta.discourse.org/t/1 opens the right topic seamlessly and allows you to go back to the previous URL.

No issue either with external links: https://unicyclist.com/t/265354/2608

[Heliosurge (Dan DeMontmorency)]

That link ia almost 2 years old now. I imagine that may have been fixed up since then.

If you look at the op statement it was more about a post number.

The top link has /1 where as the other just ends in / so no post number in the link

(Share Link Shortener) This link goes to post #1 in this topic.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/251965/1

(Share Link Shortener) This link has no post number.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/251965/

[hoangphuctran93 (Hoàng Phúc Trần)]

You can add more customization to use external shortlink systems, for example I am currently using yourl source code to set-up a website that supports shortlink is https://agentc.asia/s

[danielabc (Daniela)]

I loved so much what you did
but I needed to put an icon next to the date
to signal to users that they can click
How do I put an icon there?

@Canapin

[Kartoon]

This suddenly stopped working on my site (to be honest I have no idea when, I don’t use it frequently) but just noticed now it’s not appearing on any of my themes though it’s still enabled on all of them. I know that provides no useful information lol, but any idea?

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

After upgrading to the latest version of Discourse, I confirm the component doesn’t work anymore.
I’d need to have a look at the recent Discourse commits.

It’s a very simple theme component, so if someone wants to have a look and do a PR, it’s also welcomed.

[awesomerobot (Kris)]

This seems like a useful component, so I’ve fixed it and added some updates here:

REFACTOR: use component, remember state

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

The theme component has been updated and is now official.
There’s a new setting as well described in the first post.

I’ve been using Mastodon recently on an instance with limited character numbers, so that might be useful here indeed.

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

Shoud these two shares, topic and post, work similar way?

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

1. Post link : yes, it does.

2. Topic link… It triggers a JS error Thanks for thinking about that @Jagster

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

Interesting, kind of. An error opens sharing of iOS instead. Well, not sharing-sharing actually, but this pop-up:

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

After trying again, it doesn’t trigger any error anymore.

I’m not sure what the issue was.

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

I don’t know anything about errors, but I get different view, and I don’t know if it should or should not be that way.