Short URLs allow you to create convenient, memorable links to specific content on your server that make it easier to share and publish information you want to share. Instead of using an outside service like TinyURL or bit.ly, you can define short URLs within LabKey.

For example, say you're working with a team and have discovered something important about some complex data. Here we're looking at some sample data from within the demo study on labkey.org. Instead of directing colleagues to open the dataset, filter for one variable, sort on another, filter on a third, all these operations are contained in the full URL.

https://www.labkey.org/study/home/Study/demo/dataset.view?datasetId=5006&Dataset.HIVRapidTest~eq=Negative&Dataset.HIVSourceLab~eq=
Olympia%20University%20Consortium&Dataset.HIVLoadQual~eq=Positive

You could certainly email this URL to colleagues, but for convenience you can define a shortcut handle and publish a link like this, which if clicked takes you to the same place:

http://www.labkey.org/important.url

Note that the same filters are applied without any action on the part of the user of the short URL and the full URL is displayed in the browser.

Define Short URLs

Short URLs are relative to the server and port number on which they are defined. The current server location is shown in the UI as circled in the screenshot below. If this is incorrect, you can correct the Base Server URL in Site Settings. Typically a short URL is a single word without special characters. The

To define a short URL:

• Select Admin > Site > Admin Console.
• Click Short URLs. Any currently defined short URLs will be listed in the Existing Short URLs web part.

• Type the desired short URL word into the entry window (the .url extension is added automatically).
• Paste or type the full destination URL minus the server or port into the Target URL window. To use the above example, the destination URL begins "/study/home/..."
• Click Submit.

You can click the Test link to try your short URL. You can now paste the short URL into a new browser tab and you will be taken directly to the complex URL target. Use Update or Delete buttons to manage defined short URLs. Note that depending on how your application is deployed, you may or may not need to include the context path ("/labkey" in the above screenshot) in the target URL.

Security

The short URL can be entered by anyone, but access to the actual target URL and content will be subject to the same permission requirements as if the short URL had not been used.