In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Simple-URL-Shortener on Ubuntu Server Latest. Simple-URL-Shortener is an open-source URL shortening tool written in PHP, and it allows users to shorten long URLs into short, easy-to-remember links. We will install Simple-URL-Shortener from its GitHub repository using the command line interface.
Before we start, make sure that you have the following prerequisites:
If you haven't installed the Apache web server yet, you can install it by running the following command:
sudo apt install apache2
After the installation is complete, you can verify that Apache is running by accessing your server's IP address on a web browser. If Apache is running, you should see the default Apache welcome page.
Simple-URL-Shortener requires a database server to store its data. We will install and configure the MySQL/MariaDB database server on our Ubuntu server.
sudo apt install mariadb-server
After the installation is complete, you can secure the database installation by running the following command:
sudo mysql_secure_installation
Follow the on-screen prompts and enter a strong root password and remove unwanted default settings.
Simple-URL-Shortener is available on GitHub, and we will use Git to download the repository.
sudo apt install git
We will download the Simple-URL-Shortener repository from GitHub using Git with the following command:
sudo git clone https://github.com/azlux/Simple-URL-Shortener.git /var/www/html/shortener
After the cloning is complete, change the ownership of the shortener directory to the Apache user with the following command:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/shortener
We will create a new MySQL/MariaDB database and user for the Simple-URL-Shortener installation.
Log in to the MySQL shell by running the following command and enter the root password when prompted:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Create a new database with the following command:
CREATE DATABASE shortenerdb;
Create a new MySQL/MariaDB user with the following command:
CREATE USER 'shorteneruser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password123';
Grant full access to the shortener database for the shorteneruser with the following command:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON shortenerdb.* TO 'shorteneruser'@'localhost';
Exit the MySQL shell by running the following command:
exit;
Remember to replace password123 with a strong password for your user.
Navigate to the Simple-URL-Shortener installation directory with the following command:
cd /var/www/html/shortener
Copy the config.php.sample file to config.php with the following command:
sudo cp config.php.sample config.php
Edit the config.php file with your favorite text editor:
sudo nano config.php
Update the database credentials with the MySQL/MariaDB database and user we created earlier. Replace <DATABASE> with the name of the database you created, <USER> with the name of the database user you created, and <PASSWORD> with the database user's password:
define("DATABASE_NAME", "<DATABASE>");
define("DATABASE_USER", "<USER>");
define("DATABASE_PASSWORD", "<PASSWORD>");
define("DATABASE_HOST", "localhost");
Save and exit the file.
Navigate to your Ubuntu server's IP address with a web browser, followed by /shortener:
http://server-ip/shortener
You should see the Simple-URL-Shortener installation page. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.
In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Simple-URL-Shortener on Ubuntu Server Latest. You can now start using Simple-URL-Shortener to shorten long URLs into easy-to-remember links.
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