ShortenURL AppleScript Plugin for QuickSilver

2008-03-02T23:59:00.008+13:00

Here is a small AppleScript plugin for QuickSilver. It takes a text URL input, and converts it to a short URL using the MetaMark.net REST API. The short URL is saved to the clipboard for pasting to a browser, or to an Email, IM, whatever. I've also built in Growl support so that you get notification of what's going on.

To use the script, copy the text below to a file named "Shorten URL.scpt". Put this file in your QuickSilver Actions folder, which is ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions/". Restart Quicksilver (press Command, Control, Q with a Quicksilver window open to restart it). Quicksilver will then automatically recognise the script and you're ready to go.

To use, open Quicksilver, press '.' to get the text input, and enter a URL. There is some type checking in the script, so you can enter "www.whatever.com", as well as "http://www.whatever.com". The script will automatically add the "http://" if you don't want to type it. If you don't enter any text, or if you just run shortenURL straight from within Quicksilver, it will take the URL of the front page in Safari and convert that.

The script will then convert the URL, notify you using Growl (if it's running), and put the resulting short URL in the clipboard. You can then paste this (Command-V) to wherever you'd like it.


using terms from application "Quicksilver"
 on process text longURL
  -- Init
  my growlRegister()
  
  -- If we didn't get a text string then grab the URL from Safari
  if longURL is "" then
   tell application "Safari"
    if document 1 exists then
     copy the URL of the front document to longURL
    end if
   end tell
  end if
  
  -- Format the URL accordingly in case it was types sans http://
  if (longURL does not start with "http://") then
   set longURL to "http://" & longURL
  end if
  
  -- Convert the longURL
  set shellScript to ("curl --url \"http://metamark.net/api/rest/simple?long_url=" & longURL & "\" ")
  
  set shortURL to (do shell script shellScript)
  
  -- Display success message
  growlNotify("Short URL now in clipboard:", shortURL)
  
  -- Open the shortURL in Safari to test it
  --tell application "Safari"
  --set URL of front document to shortURL
  --end tell
  
  set the clipboard to shortURL
  
 end process text
end using terms from

using terms from application "GrowlHelperApp"
 -- Register Growl
 on growlRegister()
  tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
   register as application "Shorten URL" all notifications {"Alert"} default notifications {"Alert"} icon of application "Script Editor.app"
  end tell
 end growlRegister
 
 -- Notify using Growl
 on growlNotify(grrTitle, grrDescription)
  tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
   notify with name "Alert" title grrTitle description grrDescription application name "Shorten URL"
  end tell
 end growlNotify
end using terms from

KiwiComms

ShortenURL AppleScript Plugin for QuickSilver