Have you ever had to give someone a shortened version of a URL? Maybe you’re a podcaster, and you need to say “visit mydomain.com/2008/01/03/my-post-with-a-long-url/ for more info.” Wouldn’t it be useful if you could just say “go to mydomain.com/go/mycoolpost/ ?” Sure, you *could* use a service like tinyurl.com, but that’s still not too great if you need the URL for a podcast. It’s still awkward to read-out “tinyurl.com/27asr9,” isn’t it? It’s less professional too (not to mention that you’re relying on TinyURL to stay in business, and not delete your redirect, etc). GoCodes let’s you create shortcut URLs to anywhere on the internet, right from your WordPress Admin. Whether you need it for podcasting, printed publications (like TopicCards), or affiliate programs, GoCodes will do the job for you.
Installation
- Download the GoCodes plugin
- FTP the entire “gocodes” directory to your plugins folder (/wp-content/plugins/).
- Activate the plugin on the “Plugins” tab of the administartion panel.
- Add some GoCodes via the menu added to the Manage tab.
To manage your redirects, open your WordPress admin, and go to the Manage -> GoCodes menu. From there you can remove redirects by clicking on the “Delete” button next to their entries, and you can add new ones using the form on the page. The “Key” field is where you enter the redirection string (e.g. “orange” in yourdomain.com/go/orange/). The URL field is where you enter the URL that users will be redirected to (“http://” is required). Note that the Key can only contain alphanumeric characters.
Known Issues
- There seems to be a conflict with the WP Super Cache plugin where a redirect will only work once before the cache is cleared. There is a workaround, though. All you have to do is add “index.php” on a new line in the “Rejected URLs” field of the WP Super Cache options page. This will disable cacheing of the page yourdomain.com/index.php. Generally, this shouldn’t be too big of an issue, as visitors will rarely add the /index.php when they visit your blog.
Like this plugin? Donate $5.
