It turns out that you can access tinyurl.com with a single line of bash script. So of course I had to write a 150-line front-end for it.
It comes out looking like this:
If there's already a URL in your clipboard when you launch the program, it will be detected and pasted in for you.
Code:
#!yab
############# Prologue #############
##Fill in these fields with your own particulars.
##The variables will be used in the About Box
ProgramName$ = "TinyTim"
AuthorName$ = "Michel Clasquin-Johnson <clasqm@gmail.com>"
ProgramVersion$ = "V0.1"
ProgramBriefDescription$ = "TinyTim allows you to send a long URL to tinyurl.com and copy the resulting short URL to the clipboard."
ProgramLicense$ = "Public Domain"
//*****Global Variables****
## Technically, yab does not require you to declare global variables,
##It just is a really, really good idea to do it anyway.
// set DEBUG = 1 to print out all messages on the console
DEBUG = 0
//change this to DEBUG = 0 when you are ready to bind the program for distribution
LongURL$=""
ShortURL$="Shortened URL will appear here after conversion"
######Preliminary Commands#####
## Commands to run before the Main Loop come here.
## e.g. setting up a window with a menu.
OpenWindow()
#######End of Prologue#######
//Main Message Loop
dim msg$(1)
while(not leavingLoop)
nCommands = token(message$, msg$(), "|")
for everyCommand = 1 to nCommands
if(DEBUG and msg$(everyCommand)<>"") print msg$(everyCommand)
switch(msg$(everyCommand))
case "_QuitRequested":
case "MainWindow:_QuitRequested":
leavingLoop = true
break
case "aboutButton"
Alert ProgramName$ + " " + ProgramVersion$ + "\n" + "by " + AuthorName$ +"\n\n" + ProgramBriefDescription$ + "\n\n" + ProgramLicense$, "OK", "none"
break
case "tinyurlButton":
Launchsurl$()
break
case "copyButton":
Copy2Clipboard()
break
default:
break
end switch
next everyCommand
wend
CloseWindow()
end
sub CheckLongURL()
if LongURL$ = "" then
Alert "Please enter a long URL first", "OK", "warning"
return 0
end if
If (left$(LongURL$, 4)<>"www.") and (left$(LongURL$, 5) <> "http:") then
alert "Is this a valid URL? Please start your URL with www or http. URLs are case sensitive and with no tabs, spaces or trailing lines, please", "OK", "warning"
return 0
endif
if instr(LongURL$, "\n") <> 0 then
alert "There is an open line or more than one line in your long URL (possibly at the end, did you press ENTER?) Please remove it.", "OK", "warning"
return 0
endif
return 1
end sub
sub CloseWindow()
//Close down the main window
window close "MainWindow"
end sub
sub Copy2Clipboard()
if ShortURL$ = "" return
clipboard copy ShortURL$
end sub
sub DisplayShortURL()
draw flush "ShortURLView"
Draw text 0,20, ShortURL$, "ShortURLView"
end sub
sub ExamineClipboard()
//this should only happen at program launch
//if you wish to add an "insert from clipboard" function later
//it will require a TEXTEDIT CLEAR. But rightclick works so why bother?
local clipcontent$
clipcontent$ = clipboard paste$
if (left$(clipcontent$, 4) = "www.") or (left$(clipcontent$, 5) = "http:") then
textedit add "URLField", clipcontent$
LongURL$ = clipcontent$ // not strictly necessary, but better to play safe
endif
end sub
sub Launchsurl$()
local dothis$
LongURL$ = textedit get$ "URLField"
if CheckLongURL()= 0 return
UIOnOff(0)
dothis$ = "curl 'http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=" + LongURL$ +"'"
//print dothis$
ShortURL$ = system$(dothis$)
DisplayShortURL()
UIOnOff(1)
end sub
sub OpenWindow()
//Setup the main window here
window open 100,100 to 500,280, "MainWindow", ProgramName$
window set "MainWindow", "look", "floating"
window set "MainWindow", "feel", "modal-app"
window set "MainWindow", "flags","not-zoomable"
window set "MainWindow", "flags","not-resizable"
text 10,25 to 49,40, "URLlabel", "URL:", "MainWindow"
text 10,68 to 52,88, "Submitlabel", "Submit", "MainWindow"
text 10,105 to 59,125, "Resultslabel", "Result:", "MainWindow"
draw rect 70,10 to 390,50, "MainWindow"
Textedit 71,11 to 389,49, "URLField", 0,"MainWindow"
Button 70, 60 to 390, 90, "tinyurlButton", "Submit this URL to tinyurl.com", "MainWindow"
View 70, 100 to 390, 130, "ShortURLView", "MainWindow"
Button 70, 140 to 280, 170, "copyButton", "Copy to clipboard", "MainWindow"
option set "copyButton", "enabled", 0 //don't need this until we have a short URL
Button 290, 140 to 390, 170, "aboutButton", "About", "MainWindow"
DisplayShortURL()
ExamineClipboard()
end sub
sub UIOnOff(state)
//state must be 1 or 0
option set "tinyurlButton", "enabled", state
option set "copyButton", "enabled", state
option set "aboutButton", "enabled", state
end sub
It comes out looking like this:
If there's already a URL in your clipboard when you launch the program, it will be detected and pasted in for you.