cmshorturl documentation · 2019-04-02 · cmshorturl documentation, release 1.0.0 there are 4...

CMShortURL DocumentationRelease 1.0.0

CMExtension

August 08, 2015

Contents

1 Overview 31.1 Technical Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Installation 52.1 Upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Configuration 7

4 Google Analytics campaign 9

5 Google Analytics source 11

6 Google Analytics content 13

7 Menu item 15

8 Shortened URLs 17

9 Logs 19

i

CMShortURL Documentation, Release 1.0.0

CM Short URL is a Joomla! component for shortening URL, it also provides option to add Google Analytics trackingparameters to URL before shortening and option to log visits from shortened URLs.

This documentation gives you instruction how to install and setup CM Short URL on your Joomla! website.

Contents:

Contents 1


2 Contents

CHAPTER 1

Overview

CM Short URL is a Joomla! component for shortening URL, it also provides option to add Google Analytics trackingparameters to URL before shortening and option to log visits of shortened URLs.

If your Joomla! ecommerce site has a long URL like this:

http://www.yourstore.com/shop/categories/sale-off/christmas-sale

Why don’t make it shorter like this before sharing it on Facebook, Twitter or forums:

http://www.yourstore.com/off/christmas

If the long URL is changed, you can simply change it in CM Short URL and the short URL

http://www.yoursite.com/go/chrismas-sale

still works and takes your customers to the correct page for Chrismas products.

The short URL is easier to remember, easier to share while talking, easier and faster to type in mobile devices.

1.1 Technical Requirements

CM Short URL is compatible 3.x.x. CM Short URL is NOT compatible with Joomla! 1.x.x and 2.x.x.

Please check Joomla!’s Technical Requirements for more information of Joomla!’s requirements.

1.2 Features

• Create short URL with random alias or your own alias.

• Add UTM parameters of Google Analytics to URL before shortening.

• Track how many times short URL is visited.

• Log user’s info like IP address, browser, operating system and referral website for every tracked visit.

• Easy to disable logging and Google Analytics integration if you don’t use them.

3

http://www.joomla.org/technical-requirements.html


4 Chapter 1. Overview

CHAPTER 2

Installation

Installing CM Short URL is very easy just like installing any other Joomla! extension.

In your Joomla! back-end, you navigate to Extensions -> Extension Manager, click “Browse” button and select theinstallation package of CM Short URL on your computer, click “Upload & Install” button to upload the package toyour server and install it.

2.1 Upgrading

To upgrade your CM Short URL to a newer version, you can simply install the new version.

5


6 Chapter 2. Installation

CHAPTER 3

Configuration

In your Joomla!’s back-end, you go to Extensions -> CM Short URL to access CM Short URL.

The default page of CM Short URL is the list of shortened URLs.

On the toolbar there is an “Options” button, you click this button to configure the component.

7


There are 4 configuration options:

• Long URL’s max length: The maximum length of long URLs displayed in URL list. The long URLs which arelonger this limit are truncated. This prevents URLs from breaking the page if they are too long. Default value is150.

• Random alias’s length: The length of random alias. Default value is 5. If you enter your own alias, there is nolimit.

• Enable UTM parameters: Enable UTM parameters if you want to inlucde Google Analytics campaign param-eters to your URLs. The options and info of UTM parameters will be hidden if you disable.

• Logging: Enable logging visitor’s IP address, browser info and referral website if the info is available.

When you enable UTM parameters, “UTM sources”, “UTM contents” and “Campaigns” are added to the component’ssubmenu. “Log” menu item is also added to the submenu if you enable logging.

8 Chapter 3. Configuration

CHAPTER 4

Google Analytics campaign

“Campaigns” in CM Short URL is where you manage and create sets of utm_medium, utm_campaign and utm_termof Google Analytics campagins.

Go to Extensions -> CM Short URL -> click “Campaigns” on the left submenu. “Campaigns” menu item is onlyvisible to you if you enable “Enable UTM parameters” option in the component configuration.

Click “New” button on the toolbar to create a new campaign.

A campaign must have a title, this title is only for internal use, it is not added to original or shortened URLs.

The Google Analytics parameters utm_medium, utm_campaign and utm_term are optional, if they are provided theyare appended to original URL before shortening.

9


10 Chapter 4. Google Analytics campaign

CHAPTER 5

Google Analytics source

You need to enable “Enable UTM parameters” option in the component configuration to use this feature.

In Joomla! back-end, navigate to Extensions -> CM Short URL -> click “UTM sources” on the left submenu.

Click “New” button on the toolbar to create a new utm_source.

The title is for internal use, it is not added to original or shortened URLs. utm_source field’s value is appended tooriginal URL before shortening.

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12 Chapter 5. Google Analytics source

CHAPTER 6

Google Analytics content

You need to enable “Enable UTM parameters” option in the component configuration to use this feature.

In Joomla! back-end, navigate to Extensions -> CM Short URL -> click “UTM contents” on the left submenu.

Click “New” button on the toolbar to create a new utm_content.

The title is for internal use, it is not added to original or shortened URLs. utm_content field’s value is appended tooriginal URL before shortening.

13


14 Chapter 6. Google Analytics content

CHAPTER 7

Menu item

There is only 1 front-end menu item for CM Short URL, it is called “Short URL”. This menu item is used as the parentmenu item of shortened URLs to prevent conflicts with other menu items and other components on the site.

This “Short URL” menu item needs to be used a hidden menu item. Hidden menu or hidden menu item are not visiblein your front-end.

If you don’t have any hidden menu yet, you can create a new one by navigating to Menus -> Menu Manager -> AddNew Menu.

You can name the new menu’s title and menu type whatever you want, in the above screenshot the menu is called“Hidden Menu” with menu type “hidden-menu”.

To create a new menu item in this menu, you go to Menus -> Hidden Menu -> Add New Menu Item or go to Menus-> Hidden Menu -> click New button on the toolbar.

In the form, you click “Select” button of “Menu Item Type” field, in the modal window you select “Short URL (hiddenmenu item)” in “CM Short URL” section.

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Give the menu item a title, you can choose whatever title, however you should provide a short value for “Alias” option,this alias value decides what your short URLs look like. For example of your alias is “go” like in the screenshot below,then the shortened URLs could look like this: http://www.yoursite.com/go/my-web-page

“go” alias is inspired by NASA’s shortening URL system - http://go.nasa.gov.

16 Chapter 7. Menu item

http://www.yoursite.com/go/my-web-page

http://go.nasa.gov

CHAPTER 8

Shortened URLs

In Joomla! back-end, navigate to Extensions -> CM Short URL to access the list of short URLs.

Click “New” button on the toolbar to create new short URL.

Enter the long URL into “URL” field. If you use Google Analytics, select Campaign, UTM source and UTM content.

If you leave “Alias” field empty, a random alias will be generated for you. The length of this alias is the limit whichyou configure in the component’s configuration. If you want to have a meaningful and easy to remember alias, youneed the alias you want to use into the field.

When you have short URLs, the list of short URLs looks similar to the below screen shot.

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The “Hits” column displays how many times short URL is visited. We use session to check for unique hit, so if youvisit a URL again and again in a browser, they are only counted as 1 hit

The last column in the list is the icon which open short URL in a new browser/tab when you click. You can test to seeif your short URL by clicking the icon of it.

18 Chapter 8. Shortened URLs

CHAPTER 9

Logs

In Joomla! back-end, navigate to Extensions -> CM Short URL -> click “Logs” in the left submenu to access the logsof visitors. “Logs” menu item is not visible if you don’t enable “Logging” option in the component configuration.

The logged information is based on the information in the request from visitor. It is calculated the same as Hits valuein URL list (using session).

Referral webiste is where visitor clicks short URL. If this information is not available then visitor may directly accessshort URL or the information is not included in the request. This information is not always correct because technicalvisitors can set this information before sending the request to your site.

Web browser column includes 2 icons for web browser and operating system. You can hover your mouse pointerover the icons to see the names of web browser/operating system. This information is not always correct becausetechnical visitors can set this information before sending the request to your site and some unpopular browsers are notrecognized.

IP address field contains the IP address from which visitor accesses short URL.

If your site is big and has many visitors coming to your site from short URLs, enabling logging may increase the sizeof your database because the number logged accesses is so big, so you may consider to disable logging.

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cmshorturl documentation · 2019-04-02 · cmshorturl documentation, release 1.0.0 there are 4...

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