Go Short URL logo

Installation

1.
Decide where you will install Go Short URL. I recommend it be installed in a subdirectory of your document root, a subdirectory with a short name. (The document root is the directory where your domain's main/index web page file is located — the page that loads into your browser when you type your domain name into the address bar.)

The location of the installation will determine the length of the short URLs you create.

For purposes of these instructions, we'll assume you decide to install Go Short URL into the "go" subdirectory. If your installation is in a different subdirectory, substitute "go" in these instructions with the actual subdirectory name.

2.
Upload these files into the "go" subdirectory:

GoShortURL.php
GoShortURLconfig.php
GoShortURLinstall.php
GoShortURLmanual.php
GoShortURLpagetop.php
GoShortURLredirect.php
GoShortURLtext.php

3.
Open file GoShortURLpassword.php in a plain text editor.

Specify a control panel password at the place indicated and save the file.

Upload file GoShortURLpassword.php into the "go" subdirectory.

4.
If the "go" subdirectory does not already contain an index.html file, upload the index.html file provided in your Go Short URL download. Otherwise, do not upload another index.html as that would overwrite the one already in the "go" subdirectory.

5.
Either create an .htaccess file in the "go" subdirectory or modify the one already existing in the subdirectory.

Here is the content for the .htaccess file:

If Go Short URL is installed in a subdirectory named something other than "go", change the third line, above, accordingly.

If the "go" subdirectory does not already contain an .htaccess file, then create one for the subdirectory. Otherwise, append the above 3 lines to the existing .htaccess file.

6.
Prepare a MySQL database.

If you do not know how to create a database with MySQL, your hosting company should have tutorials available.

Different hosting companies do things differently. Should your hosting company happen to provide you with cPanel, here is a quick "how-to" (if your hosting company has instructions, use those instead):

To get started, click on the "MySQL Databases" icon.

a. Create a database.

(You can use an already existing database, if you wish. In that case, skip to the next step.)

In the "Databases" section, type a name for a new database. Then click on AddDb.

Click on [go back].

b. Create a user.

(You can use an already existing user, if you wish. In that case, skip to the next step.)

In the "Users" section, type a username and password. Then click on Add User.

Click on [go back].

c. Add user to database.

(If the user is already added to the database, then this step doesn't need to be done.)

In the "Databases" section, select a user and a database. Then click on Add User to Db

Note that cPanel may prepend your hosting account username and an underscore character to the names of the database and user you create. This would depend on how your hosting company has things set up.

7.
Give the blank file GoShortURLconfig.php 666 permissions. File GoShortURLconfig.php will be updated when you do the next step.

8.
Type the URL of GoShortURLinstall.php into your browser. Example:
http://example.com/go/GoShortURLinstall.php

The page will ask for MySQL access information. You will need to know the database name, the user name, and the user password.

When the install is successful, the page will provide a link to the Go Short URL control panel. For reference, the software file name is GoShortURL.php. Example URL:
http://example.com/go/GoShortURL.php

9.
After the previous step is done, give file GoShortURLconfig.php 644 permissions. This is a security measure.

 
Tech support is here. You can always write to us if you need special assistance or have ideas to improve the software, or even if you just want to chat.

If, in the future, you would like more features, like click counting, statistics, and downloading click records, see Short URL V2 information page at http://www.willmaster.com/software/shorturl/. The page has a link to a comparison chart.

Thank you for using Go Short URL.

Will Bontrager


Copyright 2008 Bontrager Connection, LLC
Copyright 2012 Will Bontrager Software, LLC