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I'm looking to shorten some links, by re-directing. I'm wondering what the best way to do this is: I have files at www.mysite.com/qr/quicklinks/User/ but I'm wondering if it's possible to somehow make it so it's just www.mysite.com/user? This would be brilliant if it can be done and possibly in PHP too? I've tried a few things but nothing seems to be working.

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2 Answers

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Use a .htaccess file and mod_rewrite:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^qr/quicklinks/(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Depending on the server, that's case-sensitive. Adjust the URL if necessary.

If that fails, try this PHP code:

<?php
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" ); 
Header( "Location: http://www.site.com/Users/" ); 
?>

It won't support wildcard files though.

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That doesn't seem to be working. I've created a .htaccess file and places it on the server, then put your code into it. Does anything else have to be in the .htaccess file? – Joe Turner Jun 25 '12 at 13:56
It requires that mod_rewrite is enabled, I updated my answer with some PHP code. – ionFish Jun 25 '12 at 13:58
Struggling with this, I've never really set up a .htaccess file before. It's not really doing anything, just not letting me access anything on my server now. I delete the .htaccess file and it's back to normal... Is there anything that a .htaccess file MUST have in order to run? – Joe Turner Jun 25 '12 at 14:07
Hold on, which directory did you put the .htaccess? It could also be my syntax, that was done from memory. I'll verify it on my server quickly. – ionFish Jun 25 '12 at 14:11
I put it in the root. I'm looking for it to do the following if possible dude: www.mysite.com/QR/QuickLinks/'XXXXXX' - So, whatever is 'XXXXX' can be found by going to www.mysite.com/'XXXXXX' – Joe Turner Jun 25 '12 at 14:16
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You know you can just use Bit.ly for free and they have an api where your site can generate URLs.

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I'll have a look at setting this up. Thanks. – Joe Turner Jun 26 '12 at 10:03
Bitly is cool because they handle everything for you. If you want something that you can host yourself, then yourls.org is a nice free start. – Frank Jun 26 '12 at 10:56
I'm having a bit of trouble actually implementing the Bit.Ly at the moment. The way my site works is, the user inputs a contract number and then that creates a directory, calls for a QR Code (Via Google) using the link.. How would I get that Bit.Ly into the Google script at the same time? – Joe Turner Jun 26 '12 at 11:27
Where is the google script you are using? Ill take a look – Frank Jul 11 '12 at 17:16

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