Difference between revisions of "Template:ShortLink"

Revision as of 06:02, 24 July 2009

Usage

This shortens external URLs. It may not be useful for single usage on a page but for mass output, e.g. via another template. It can be used in DPL in combination with addexternallink=true and %EXTERNALLINK% in the output.
The link text also no more contains the "http://" and "www." prefixes. This makes it even shorter and prevents unexperienced users from wrong copy-paste since they see more clearly that this is not the complete URL instead of just "…" at the end.
Note: Requires Extension:StringFunctions

Usage

{{ShortLink
|url    =
|count  =
|suffix =
|plain  =(yes)
|domainonly  =(yes)
|domainbold  =(yes)
}}

• count: optional / default: 35

The number of displayed characters. It counts and returns the string without "http://" and "www." (if the URL is longer than the default 35 characters).

• url: required

Set the full URL http://...

• suffix: optional / default: "…" (not ...)

Adds an suffix at the end of the shortened string. It is not recommend to set an empty suffix.

• plain: optional / default: no

Returns each link in a span with class=plainlinks. Note that you should have this set up in you CSS. Also note that your page code is more clear when you set class="plainlinks" for the element that contains all your links.

• domainonly: optional / default: no

domainonly=yes will only display the domain (including subdomains if given). A setting for count or forceprefix is useless here.

• domainbold: optional / default: no

domainbold=yes will highlight the domain bold. This is useful for lists of many different external URLs. The prefix is also stripped for URLs shorter than count.

Examples

{{ShortLink|url=http://semeb.com/dpldemo/index.php?title=Template:ShortLink}}

The URL (stripped: without "http://" and "www.") has 45 characters. That's more than count (default 35). Result:
Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".

{{ShortLink|url=http://www.imdb.com|suffix=....}}

The (stripped) URL is shorter than the count (default 35). It will be fully returned without suffix. Result:
Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".

{{ShortLink
|url=http://www.google.de/search?q=DLP&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a
|count=50}}

We use a count of 50. Result:
Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".

{{ShortLink
|url=http://www.google.de/search?q=DLP&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a
|count=50|suffix='''....'''|plain=yes}}

We add a custom suffix and use class="plainlinks". Result:
Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".

*{{ShortLink|url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2008Sep#Hack_for_search_suggestion_field_width_will_be_obsolete
|count=50|domainbold=yes}}
*{{ShortLink|url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page|count=50|domainbold=yes}}
*{{ShortLink|url=http://www.imdb.com|count=50|domainbold=yes}}

We highlight the domain. Result:

• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".

*{{ShortLink|url=http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Configuration_settings_%28alphabetical%29|plain=yes|domainonly=yes}}
*{{ShortLink|url=http://us.imdb.com/help/|plain=yes|domainonly=yes}}
*{{ShortLink|url=http://google.com|plain=yes|domainonly=yes}}
*{{ShortLink|url=http://google.com/|plain=yes|domainonly=yes}}
*{{ShortLink|url=http://google.com/123|plain=yes|domainonly=yes}}

We only want the domain. Result:

• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
• Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".

For practical examples see: Template:ShortLink/Examples.