Vanity URL For SharePoint
Vanity URLs are short and unique custom branded URLs that make long and unattractive links look short, easy to remember and share. Vanity URLs are highly used by marketing professionals on various marketing materials and social networking sites.
SharePoint has the tendency to spit out very long and ugly URLs and besides very few complex IIS tricks there aren’t many options out of the box to solve this issue.
In this article I will examine few available Vanity URL/Shorten URL solutions for SharePoint from third-party software providers.
Jan Tielens’ URL Shortener Solution
We start our quest for a better shorten URL solution for SharePoint with Jan Tielens’ URL Shortener. While his solution is free, very easy to deploy and perfect for a quick Shorten URL workaround method it would not be suitable for a proper Vanity URL option. He is using the popular bit.ly API to shorten the links. That means the shorten links would inherit the bit.ly domain name followed by some randomly selected letters and numbers. I can bet your marketing department would not be happy with this solution.
Compatibility: SharePoint 2010
Price: Free
Paul Liebrand’s SharePoint URL Shortener
This SharePoint feature created by Paul Liebrand allows end-users to generate shortened URLs against SharePoint content that can be used in documents, emails, navigation links, etc.
The latest version of this feature allows you to customize the short name before it gets created.
Compatibility: SharePoint 2010
Price: Free
Protiviti SP URL Manager
Developed by the well-know SharePoint consulting company, SusQtech (now Protiviti), SP URL Manager is a good choice to make your SharePoint links pretty. SP URL Manager from Protiviti allows you to create short vanity URLs that are easy to remember and get people to what they need quickly.
SP URL Manager can be easily installed by any SharePoint site administrator and activated on any or all of SharePoint sites in the farm. Once installed, the SP URL Manager tool can be accessed from any SharePoint document or webpage via the ribbon.
Compatibility: SharePoint 2010
Price: $499 (SP URL Manager license/server)
Price: $99/year Support & Updates (SP URL Manager Software Assurance)
SharePoint ShortUrl
Provided as a very lightweight solution file, SharePoint ShortUrl can be deployed on SharePoint 2007, SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server 2010. All the code and shortcuts are managed within the SharePoint environment.
Using SharePoint ShortUrl a shortened hyperlink can be created to any Page, List Item, Document and View within SharePoint. Also to any external URL including FTP and mailto.
With SharePoint ShortUrl you can create short URLs directly from the Site Actions Menu and/or any List/Library items Context Menu.
All the short URLs are stored in a regular SharePoint List which allows for all of the standard List functionality of audit trails, workflow, security permissions, item approval and so on.
Compatibility: SharePoint 2010 and 2013
Price: $699 (Standard License for SharePoint 2013) – $999 (Enterprise License for SharePoint 2013)
Price: $599 (Standard License for SharePoint 2010) – $899 (Enterprise License for SharePoint 2010)
Muhimbi URL Shortener
The Muhimbi URL Shortener for SharePoint 2007 & 2010 (MuSH) makes it easy to share long and complex web addresses via email, verbally over the phone and social media platforms.
Although similar in functionality to publicly available services such as TinyURL and bit.ly, MuSH has specifically been designed with enterprises in mind by providing functionality such as:
– Users can specify their own Short URL Name.
– URL Shortener functionality can be accessed from SharePoint Workflows as well as as via external Web Service calls.
– Tight integration with SharePoint 2007 & 2010.
– Compatible with all web based applications and intranets.
Compatibility: WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 and SharePoint 2010.
Price: $499/server
Virto URL Shortener Web Part
URL Shortener Web Part for Microsoft SharePoint 2013 and 2010 automatically cuts large URLs with a single click to short links that can be used instantly by SharePoint users for sending links through mail, Twitter, or even text messages.
Virto URL Shortener Web Part doesn’t need special adjustment and provides pop-up interface of shortening, so you can cut large URLs with a single click. The installation process is quick and simple. The component is ready to be used right after installation and doesn’t need special adjustment.
Compatibility: SharePoint 2013 and 2010
Price: Free
If I missed any notable Vanity URL/Shorten URL solutions for SharePoint, please feel free to post a comment, and I will update the list accordingly.
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Thanks for sharing these, long urls look rather spammy, some excellent solutions to that here in this post.
Great post! I feel compelled to share my experience; Our organisation recently invested in sharpoint shorturl after evaluating the other available Url shorteners- the ease of which users can create shorturls and automatic updates of the shorturl, if the destination document name is modified made it the prime choice. Keep up the good work!
HI,
Great post! I deplyed Paul Liebrand’s SharePoint URL Shortener by guides in a farm ( 2 WF + 1 DB server) but got error :”there is no web named “” “.Strangely, after deploying this solution, i can’t create any web application at all ( IIS errorr).
Anybody help me, Thank alots!
If you have deployed and used this solution sucessfully, pls send me contact, it would have been great!
Hurrah, that’s what I was exploring for, what a information! existing here at this webpage, thanks admin of this site.