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Home > The Web at MHC > Shorten Long URLs
What is the "go" Script?
Everybody wants to make it easier for people to get to their pages, especially when advertising a link that users are going to have to type-in by hand. We have a special script that will accept an easy-to-type URL and redirect users to an area of the MHC site that is many levels deep. It's called go, because that happens to be a really short word that is also a good description of what you want to do quickly.
Link Editor
If you understand how the "go" script works, go directly to the Link Editor; you will be prompted for your userame and password. |
How It Works
Let's say you have a page about Mary Lyon that is located at
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/library/archives/marylyon.html, and you're about to create a printed advertisement for this site. Rather than telling people to type in that whole long URL, you can instead create a "Go" link called MaryLyon. Now, if users type-in any of these URLs, they will get to your site:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/MaryLyon
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/Mary-Lyon
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/marylyon
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/MaRYLyOn
Editing Links
The link editor asks for two bits of information, the Long Name and the Location of the page to link to. The Long Name is what end-users will type in after http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/ in order to get to your site. It must contain only the characters A to Z, a to z, the digits 0 to 9, period, underscore, or dash -- no spaces!
The Location is the URL of the page or directory you want to link to. You do not need to enter http://www.mtholyoke.edu at the beginning, it is assumed. You can enter the full path of a particular file or, better yet, if there is an index file in the folder, it can end with just the name of the folder. For example, these two are equivalent:
/marylyon/index.html
/marylyon
The file or folder pointed to by the Location entry must already exist before you can create a link to it.
The Short Name is created by the links editor, and you cannot edit it. It represents the shortest possible string of characters that a user might type after http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/ to get to your site.
Important Notes
- When telling people about your Go link, be sure to tell them the full URL, which has the format:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/Long-Name-Here
- Be sure to update your Go links whenever you move the pages they refer to. If you don't, anyone using the Go link will get an error message. Bad links are displayed in red on the Links Editor, so you can easily spot them.
- Some Long Names are reserved in advance, for future expansion. If you try to use one of these names, you will get an error message instructing you to ask the Webmaster to create the link for you.
- If a vague or inappropriate link is used, it may be removed by the Webmaster. For instance, if you are an instructor, don't use a Long Name like
Chem-101, unless you know you are the only one teaching a course with that name.
Go to the Link Editor.
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