lncn.eu bookmarklet

Update: Please note this has been retired and due to an official release: lncn.eu/tools.

I think one on the most handy services that the Online Services Team at the University of Lincoln have put together is their simple URL shortener called Linking You, lncn.eu for short. The basic idea; you put in a stupidly long URL and get out a nice short one that automagically redirects you to that webpage with the silly address. It's nothing new, however lncn.eu is wonderfully free of bloat and features the shiny new Common Web Design (CWD).

Having come from Nick Jackson and Alex Bilbie the thing comes with a value added API, allowing other developers to integrate their applications with the service. So that's what I've done!

I had a spare afternoon and evening, and mixed with a vague intention to play with javascript I set down to create a little bookmarklet to create a direct shortcut to the service, allowing users to shorten URLs without having to visit lncn.eu directly. I also took the opportunity to mess around further with the CWD.

One of the nice things about it is the design is really simple to modify with a little bit of CSS know how. Nick recently put up a post on the CWD blog about the flexibility of the banner height. I followed his example with my [Next Lecture](/blog/2010/university-work-update/) web app where there was lots of space to play with. With the bookmarklet space I decided that I wanted to take up as little space as possible, so rather than enlarging the banner, I shrank it and reduced the text size in the banner.

Feedback is always handy, so if you spot any bugs, or have any feature requests please leave me a comment/email/tweet.

To install this onto your own browser head over to http://lncn.eu/ptx and drag the bookmark to your bookmark bar.