What can be done about the long URLs?

Question

I'm used to using wikis with short, predictable URLs: host+page name.

Suddenly with SharePoint 2010 I'm confronted with long, apparently unpredictable paths to files.

I was triggered on this today when I wanted to email a colleague a link to a file on our company intranet in SharePoint. I embedded the link in the text of the email (using Outlook 2007) and tested it, only to find out that Outlook had not included the last few characters of the URL. I can insert the URL as plain text, of course, but that looks ugly.

Is there any generic way for SharePoint 2010 URLs to be shortened? Ideally I'm looking for a client side solution (equivalent to TinyURL) so that I don't have to go via IT. But if that's the only way, I'd still like to hear about it.

When you paste it in outlook, Can you try typing < followed by your link followed by > ? — Shoban, Aug 11 '11 at 11:55
@Shoban - not sure what you mean - where does your text visible to the user go? — Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE, Aug 11 '11 at 12:32
Sorry misunderstood your question! Thhought outlook is ignoring characters when you are pasting the link manually. — Shoban, Aug 12 '11 at 04:06
There is now a product called Short URL. It seems enterprise grade, but it's horribly expensive... https://www.shorturlapp.com/index.php I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't offer this out of the box. For a while, I started using my own "file server" to get around some of this, but it's too much hassle. — Shawn Eary, Feb 24 '21 at 21:13

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 11 '11 at 06:55

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There is no OOB features for this in SharePoint, but it's quite easy to build. If you Bingle it you will find tons of samples; for instance: http://spurlshortener.codeplex.com/

answered Aug 11 '11 at 06:55

Wictor Wilen MCA MCM MVP

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Jeroen Ritmeijer · Answer 2 · 2013-12-09T21:34:25.487

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Joel Oleson wrote about SharePoint URL Shorteners some time ago.

One of his links point to a product I worked on so the usual disclaimers apply.

edited Dec 09 '13 at 21:34

answered Aug 11 '11 at 07:17

Jeroen Ritmeijer

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the Joel link is broken – matt wilkie Dec 09 '13 at 18:05
Thanks, I have fixed it. Looks like the URL changed on that site. – Jeroen Ritmeijer Dec 09 '13 at 21:35

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 09 '13 at 18:24

Wael Mohamed gives us Create unique and shorten SharePoint URLs even the document moved using SharePoint Document ID, without installing any 3rd part code or applications.

...Document ID introduce a unique URL based on unique ID for each document “shorten link to the document” even you move the document itself from location to another or move the document library from site to another.

basically the idea is to apply a custom DocumentID prefix, enabled under Site Collection Administration, and then use the ID when linking.

It's unclear to me whether the browser address bar url reflects the change or if using the doc-id in the url is something the author needs to do when sharing the link.

What can be done about the long URLs?

3 Answers3