wpd.mx Shortlinks - now configurable via repository

Heya,

 

Some of you already know about wpd.mx, it's a domain meant for providing
shortlinks to WPD. It's perfect for sharing links in places with limited
space (like the Doc Sprint Dashboard shown via a beamer or social media like
Twitter), without resorting to external shortlink services. It's also used
by the changes-announcing bot in #webplatform-bot. :)

 

With the recent creation of the webplatform organization on github
<https://github.com/webplatform> , I took the liberty to create our first
repository! You can find it at webplatform/Shortlinks
<https://github.com/webplatform/Shortlinks> . As with every public
repository on GitHub, it is world-readable. However, only members of the
Platformers team <https://github.com/organizations/webplatform/teams/323947>
can write (push) to it. Everybody else can create pull requests, which can
be merged by authorized users.

 

I guess I don't need to mention that this is only for WebPlatform related
links, but not limited to the Docs. For example, in the current version
there is /tracking, which redirects to the tracking spreadsheet for the Doc
Sprint in Berlin. If the provided path is not found in the shortlinks.txt
file, either the corresponding wiki article is shown (if it exists) or
search results are displayed.

 

Some examples from the README:

 <http://wpd.mx/> http://wpd.mx ->
<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/Main_Page>
http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/Main_Page

 <http://wpd.mx/tasks> http://wpd.mx/tasks ->
<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Most_Wanted_Tasks>
http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Most_Wanted_Tasks

 <http://wpd.mx/apis/canvas> http://wpd.mx/apis/canvas ->
<http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/apis/canvas>
http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/apis/canvas

 <http://wpd.mx/gradient> http://wpd.mx/gradient -> Search for "gradient"

 

When adding new links (please write the key in all-lowercase), try grouping
them in a meaningful way, to keep the file at least a bit organized. :)

 

The file's format etc. is explained in the repo's README
<https://github.com/webplatform/Shortlinks>  (it's super simple). Changes to
the repo will be live in maximum 60 minutes (see README). For technically
interested people, there is a post on my blog
<http://frozenice.de/blog/how-the-wpd-mx-shortlink-service-works/> ,
explaining how it works (it uses some awesome Apache rewrite rules, nothing
else).

 

P.S.: This repo is also good for getting started on GitHub. If you haven't
pulled/pushed before and got a useful change (I think I've successfully
implemented some typos), try it out! It's unlikely that you break something
and even if so, it's easily fixed. ;)

 

Happy shortlinking!

 

 

-fro