Using Only Javascript To Shrink URLs Using The Bit.ly API

Question

I'm playing a bit with Javascript these days... I was shrinking some URLs using bit.ly to tweet them, then I started to think on a automated process that could use their API to shrink the URLs I wanted, then I looked up on their documentation, and I saw that they only support PHP(with some Javascript), but there is anyway that I could make this using only Javascript?

Answer 1

Here is an example how to get a shortened URL with Bitly API and jQuery, no server side code required.

function get_short_url(long_url, login, api_key, func)
{
    $.getJSON(
        "http://api.bitly.com/v3/shorten?callback=?", 
        { 
            "format": "json",
            "apiKey": api_key,
            "login": login,
            "longUrl": long_url
        },
        function(response)
        {
            func(response.data.url);
        }
    );
}

The following code could be used to get a short URL:

/*
Sign up for Bitly account at
 https://bitly.com/a/sign_up

and upon completion visit
https://bitly.com/a/your_api_key/ 
to get "login" and "api_key" values
*/
var login = "LOGIN_HERE";
var api_key = "API_KEY_HERE";
var long_url = "http://www.kozlenko.info";

get_short_url(long_url, login, api_key, function(short_url) {
    console.log(short_url);
});

Answer 2

Depending on where the JavaScript is executing, you could always use the bit.ly REST API:

http://code.google.com/p/bitly-api/wiki/ApiDocumentation

via XmlHttpRequest, for example:

http://api.bit.ly/v3/shorten?login=bitlyapidemo&apiKey=R_0da49e0a9118ff35f52f629d2d71bf07&longUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbetaworks.com%2F&format=json