Custom short url using La Petite Url

Before you can use the code I provide here you need to install the La Petite Url plugin to your WordPress installation. This is a beautiful plugin that creates short urls using your own domain name.

Retweet services such as tweetmeme are wonderful, but I moved away from using tweetmeme because I wanted to use my own domain for the link to preserve branding.

What the code does

My code takes a function from La Petite Url that would usually echo the shorturl and instead create a retweet link that is than echoed.

It also strips out www. if it exists in the url to make it even shorter. This is needed beause La Petite Url builds up the url using bloginfo('site_url') which will contain www. if that's how you have your normal urls display.

This hack is also safe to use in the event La Petite Url gets deactivated. If the La Petite Url function this is based on does not exist my function will switch to using the post's permalink, minus www., which Twitter will then convert to a bit.ly link if need be.

The code

Copy the following code into your theme's functions.php file.

Update - Thank you very much to Chris Neale for pointing out I was using preg_replace() where only str_replace() was needed. I have updated the code below.

/**
  * Must be called within The Loop
  */
function retweet_url() {
    $the_url;
    
    //if "la petite url" plugin is available
    if(function_exists('the_petite_url_link')) {
        //an edit of the_petite_url_link() from the plugin
        global $wp_query;
        global $wpdb;
        global $petite_table;
        
        
        $blogurl = get_bloginfo('siteurl');
        $url_table = $wpdb->prefix . $petite_table;
        $post_id = $wp_query->post->ID;
        $anchor_text = get_option('le_petite_url_link_text');

        $petite_url = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT petite_url FROM ".$url_table
            ." WHERE post_id = ".$post_id."");
        if($petite_url != "")
        {
            $le_petite_url_permalink = $blogurl;
            if(get_option('le_petite_url_permalink_prefix') != "")
            {
                $le_petite_url_permalink = $le_petite_url_permalink
                    . get_option('le_petite_url_permalink_custom');
            }
            else
            {
                $le_petite_url_permalink = $le_petite_url_permalink . "/";
            }
            $le_petite_url_permalink = $le_petite_url_permalink . $petite_url;
            
        //below differs from the_petite_url_link()
            $the_url = $le_petite_url_permalink;
        }
        else {
            $the_url = get_permalink();
        }
    }
    else
        $the_url = get_permalink();
    
    //for accessing the post title directly
    global $post;
    
    //edit this to your Twitter name
    $twitter_account = "YOURSITE";
    
    echo "http://twitter.com/home/?status=RT+%40"
    .$twitter_account."+"
    .urlencode($post->post_title)."+"
    .str_replace("www.", "", $the_url);
}

Don't forget to edit the $twitter_name variable!

Using it in context

You can now simply call retweet_url() in your theme where you want the url. You must call it within the loop.

Here is an example of how I use it on Arteki:

<a title="Tweet about this article!"  href="<?php retweet_url(); ?>" rel="nofollow">Tweet</a>

This is the basis of my retweet buttons, which you can see below this article in the "Share this" section.

The code explained

For those that are interested I will explain the parts of the code that builds the retweet url.

$the_url = get_permalink();

get_permalink() is a WordPress function that is essentially the same as the_permalink(). The difference is that it returns the permalink rather than echoing it.

global $post;

.urlencode($post->post_title)."+"

global $post brings into scope the array that contains all the information about the post in the current loop of The Loop. This is needed because otherwise $post would refer to a new local variable of the same name. From this we can grab the post's title then encode it using urlencode to make special characters their url friendly versions.

It would of course be possible to use get_the_title() to retrieve the title of the post to encode, but this leads to some issues when using urlencode. It seems WordPress functions will convert any special characters such as apostrophes into their number code equivalent, e.g. ' for an apostrophe. urlencode then converts all of those characters to their url friendly versions. This causes an ugly string of characters to be in the Twitter status box instead of the desired character.

I may be wrong about the exact problem between the_title() and urlencode() but this workaround was needed.

.str_replace("www.", "", $the_url);

This is what removes www. from the url to make the url shorter.

Your thoughts or questions

Do you have any thoughts or questions on this solution? I'd love to hear from you so please leave a comment, or if you'd rather you can email me using the contact form.

I'd also be interested to hear of any existing WordPress retweet links, e.g. code you've seen or came up with or even plugins.

Most steps will be relevant to Windows 7, I imagine. Just replace “Vista” with “Windows 7″.

This is a very quick tutorial that expects you to have some understanding of or familiarity with the installation screens for Vista and XP. If you don’t it should be possible to follow this tutorial, just make sure you have a copy available to reference.

I take no responsibility if something should go wrong with your system while following this tutorial. However, I am quite willing to try to help with any issues.

Please read all steps before following them.

What you will need

It is important to check you have all of the following on portable media (i.e. some where other than your computer) before you begin this process:

1. Genuine install disk for Windows Vista and genuine activation key.
2. Genuine install disk for Windows XP and genuine activation key.
3. Network driver for Vista.
4. Network driver for XP.
5. The install file for EasyBCD

You should also ensure you have access to all the other drivers that came with your system, e.g. a driver CD or access to them through the manufacturer’s website. However, if you have your network driver you should be able to obtain your other drivers through the device manager once you are connected to the Internet.

Please be aware that if your system is fairly new you may not be able to find all the drivers you need for XP if your computer did not come with XP. One example of this is if your hard drive is SATA. XP’s installation does not support SATA drivers and will result in a blue screen of death. Please contact me if this is the case for you, I know a work around.

Step 1. Back up files

This may seem quite obvious to do, but I think it’s one of those things that is so obvious it can easily be overlooked.

Even if you are planning to shrink a volume to make space for a second partition (see step 2) it is important to back up your files in case something goes wrong.

Step 2. Create the partitions

Option 1 (recommended)

Warning! This option will completely wipe your hard drive, so be sure to back up your files first.

1. Insert the Vista installation CD and boot your computer. At the bios, press the key to enter the boot options screen (usually F12)

2. Select the option to boot from your CD/DVD. Remember it will ask you to hit any key to confirm – it only gives you a few seconds.

3. Follow the standard installation steps until you reach the dialog that asks you which partition to install Vista on.

4. Delete any existing partitions.

5. Create a partition for Vista and another for XP. I recommend atleast 30GB for each (enter 30720MB), as Vista recommends around 24GB of free space on it’s partition. Create any other desired partitions.

   It is possible to have a 3rd partition which you can use as an install location for programs. Surprisingly few programs actually require registry entries to run. My husband’s computer is set up this way so he doesn’t have to install programs on each OS.

6. Continue to step 3.

Option 2 (existing Vista install only)

Alternatively you can attempt to shrink your existing OS partition if it is Vista.

1. Open Control panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer Management (alternatively right click “My Computer” and select “Manage”).

2. Select “Disk Management” under “Storage”

3. Right click the partition you wish to shrink and select “Shrink
   Volume”.

4. You will be told how much you can shrink the volume by and are asked to input how much you wish to shrink it. Input an amount and click the shrink button.

   N.B. The amount is likely to be smaller than the free space on the partition. This is due to fragmentation and unmovable files. Defragmenting the partition could increase the amount you can shrink by, however unmovable files are, as the name suggests, unmovable so defragmenting will only help to the point that an unmovable file is the last partition entry.

5. Use the disk management tool to create a new partition for XP with the space you freed up. To do this, right click the unallocated space and chose “New Partition”. Follow the partition wizard’s instructions.

6. Continue to step 4.

Step 3. Install Vista

No need to do this if you did option 2 in step 2.

Boot from the Vista installation disk and install Vista on the first partition. The installation process is fairly straight forward, just follow the instructions.

Reminder: To boot from the install disk, hit the key for boot options on the bios screen (usually F12), chose to boot from CD/DVD and remember to press any key when prompted.

I don’t see that you have to install Vista first, but really as the newer OS you should have it on the first partition.

Step 4. Install XP

Boot from the XP installation disk and install XP on the second partition. Again, just follow the instructions Microsoft provide on the installation.

Step 5. Repair Vista’s boot

As Vista is the newer OS, it should be the one to “control” the boot sector of your computer. However, as XP was installed sencond it wrote over Vista’s boot sector and so Vista’s boot sector needs to be repaired to overwrite XP’s.

To do this, boot onto the Vista installation disk, but instead of going to the install option select the repair option (it’s near the bottom of the dialog in smaller text).

On the next screen, select the option for repairing the startup (top option). When it has completed it will ask you to confirm you want to exit and it will restart your computer.

If this stage was successful your computer should boot into Vista.

Step 6. Set up the boot option screen

At this stage you can only boot into Vista. To be able to boot into XP you need to add it to the boot list.

You can edit boot options without 3rd party software, but I find it is much easier (and some what safer) to use a tool to help you with this. I use EasyBCD to manage my triple boot and find it is very easy to use.

1. Install EasyBCD on Vista.

2. Run EasyBCD and go to the “Add/Remove Entries” section.

3. In the “Add an Entry” subsection, go to the “Windows” tab, select XP from the drop down box and click the add entry button.

Et voilà. Your dual boot is complete.

You can use EasyBCD to further customise your boot options, such as default OS, time until default is booted and the text that appears for each OS. Those 3 options are in the “Change Settings” section.

Let me know how it goes

If you dual boot your machine, or if you have in the past, please tell me of your experiences. Did you come across any difficulties?

Please leave a comment below.

Need any help?

If you need any help, please contact me with your queries via the contact form and I will get back to you ASAP.

No problem is too small, I’m happy to try to help.

This tutorial shows you how to add meta data in Photoshop CS2, however it should still be applicable for newer versions of Photoshop.

Photoshop’s file info tool

Step 1 - Open your image in Photoshop then from the File menu select “File Info”. Alternatively you can use the keyboard shortcut: Alt+Shift+Ctrl+I

Step 2 - When the file info dialog appears you should be in the “Description” section already, but if not, select it.

Step 3 - Fill out all the sections that you feel are applicable to you. The image below shows the fields I fill in, but I have highlighted the most important field, which you should always fill in (I’ll explain why in a minute). You should also select “Copyrighted” in the copyright status field to remove any doubt.

To the right of each field is a drop down menu containing text you recently entered into it. This is a great time save for fields that will always have the same text, for example Author Name.

Step 4 - Click the ok button on the dialog and there should now be a © symbol next to the file name on the title bar of the open image. This will only be the case if you selected copyrighted in the copyright status field (which you should have done ).

The copyright symbol will appear like that for anyone who opens the image in Photoshop once you’re done saving the file.

Step 5 - Save the file. The file info will attach to a PSD file, so I recommend if you are working with a PSD you save it after adding the file info. Any JPG files you save from it will contain the meta-data.

Warning! The met-data will not save with the JPG if you chose the “Save for Web” option. You must save through either “Save” or “Save As”.

Anyone can view the meta-data in Photoshop by going to the File Info dialog as you did to save the data.

Viewing meta-data outside Photoshop

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a copy of Photoshop. Those who don’t can still view some image meta-data through Windows (and probably other OSs too, but I’ll only cover Windows XP today).

Right click your saved JPG and chose “Properties”. In the properties dialog, go to the “Summary” tab and then go to the advanced view using the button at the bottom (it says “Simple” if you are already in advanced view.

As you can see, the only copyright information that shows is what you wrote in the copyright notice field. That is why it is so important to fill out that section.

Windows doesn’t make it easy to read the full text, but you can adjust the column width to read it all.

It has its flaws

As I said, there is no guaranteed way to protect your images. Meta-data can be stripped from a file or it can simply be missed. I would love to see web browsers display file meta-data when viewing image properties.

However, meta-data is better than no meta-data. If someone doesn’t realise the data is there and uploads the image to their site, you can prove it is yours by extracting the data from the file.