Long URL Please: URL "unshortener" extension for Firefox

http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9549

by idm • 17 years ago

26 15 17 years ago

addons.mozilla.org

idm3• 17 years ago

If you're bothered by HN commenters who use URL shortening services, then this is the extension for you. Disclaimer: I didn't write this; I'm just sharing it to ease the pain.

derefr2• 17 years ago

I believe those HN users are annoyed that their paragraphs are taken over by 200-character URL strings, when they should be at most parenthetical to the discussion at hand--they are references to further reading, after all. Why does HN not allow titled links? If it's a matter of the possible syntax interfering with normal discourse, Markdown's footnote-style "reference link" specifications[1] are very unobtrusive and degrade gracefully (in fact, you're seeing the degraded version of a [modified] one in this very post!)

[1] http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#link

mattyb• 17 years ago

So you know, URIs in comments are displayed in truncated form like so:

http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/release-proce...

pyre2• 17 years ago

Why exactly does this need to be a full-on Firefox extension rather than a GreaseMonkey script? As a GreaseMonkey script users can use it on multiple browsers...

idm3• 17 years ago

Actually, there's a bookmarklet for non-firefox users. Check out the home page for the project:

http://www.longurlplease.com/

Still, I think you're on to something; Greasemonkey might be the best of all worlds.

redorb• 17 years ago

I don't think greasemonkey is as easy for my grandmother as a plugin - yeah I know my grandmother might not care about seeing the long url (or know what one is) but the premise is the same FF plugins are easier than greasemonkey... for the average user

jfarmer2• 17 years ago

Who needs C when you have assembly?

pyre2• 17 years ago

Poor analogy. Assembly is a magnitude 'harder' than C and they are different languages. Firefox extensions are written in XUL which is Javascript+XML last I checked. GreaseMonkey scripts are also written in Javascript.

My point was that this is a 'simple' hack and by keeping the solution simple (i.e. a GreaseMonkey script) users of multiple browsers can benefit. Claiming that writing for GreaseMonkey instead of writing for the Firefox Extension 'Framework' is the same as going from C back to ASM is disingenuous (and from my point of view a straw-man).

{edit} Personally for 'simple' things like this that just modify the display of the page and don't require significant user interaction (i.e. a preferences pane) I don't feel like there is a need to create a Firefox extension. There are obviously instances were Firefox Extensions are the correct option, especially when you're talking about modifying the behavior of Firefox (like the MAFF extension or the one that tells you Firefox to also save the stylesheets when saving the 'Complete Webpage'), but things like "replace all the URLs on the page with X" or "click on the image to expand it inline instead of opening up the larger image in a new tab/window" are more suited to a GreaseMonkey script (especially since a wider userbase can take advantage of them) IMO. {/edit}

chaosprophet• 17 years ago

Er... such a script already exists. It's called TinyURL decoder, and despite it's name it unshortens links from a lot of services.

benhoyt• 17 years ago

I see he's using Ajax to call his API to unshorten the URL. This is fine, but wouldn't it be faster (and less load on his server) if the JavaScript tried to follow the link directly, and looked at the Location header in the response? Or can't you do this using JavaScript?

idm3• 17 years ago

Personally, I'd rather his server checked it out, rather than leaking my IP all over the place, potentially making requests to untrusted servers.

aston• 17 years ago

Cross-domain ajax technically doesn't exist, and when it does (via hacks), the target domain sorta needs to know it's responding to a hackified remote javascript request.

edit: This might've been relevant if we weren't discussing an add-on. Nevermind...

Long URL Please: URL "unshortener" extension for Firefox

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