API Documentation

Connect your website to Short Link and create short links automatically. The integration is designed to be copy-paste simple — one small function in your PHP code is all you need. No plugins, no libraries, no extra configuration, nothing else to build.

💡 How it works in one line: your website sends us a long URL → we reply with a ready short link. That's the entire integration.

What You Need Before Connecting

Requirement	Details
1. An account on our website	Register here (free, takes one minute)
2. An API key	Generated from your Dashboard after you log in
3. A PHP website with cURL	cURL is enabled by default on virtually all PHP hostings

The Only Endpoint

There is exactly one API address, and it only accepts POST requests:

https://uplink.cyou.soshop.cyou/api.php

Request Parameters

Field	Required	Type	Description
api_key	✅ Yes	string	Your private 32-character API key
url	✅ Yes	string	The long URL to shorten (http/https, max 2048 chars)
title	❌ No	string	Optional label to identify the link

Step 1: Copy This Function Into Your Website

This is all the code you will ever need. Paste it once (for example in your functions.php or a config file) and use it anywhere:

<?php
// =====================================================
// Short Link API connector
// Paste this ONCE in your website. Nothing else needed.
// =====================================================
function makeShortLink($longUrl, $title = null) {
    $apiEndpoint = "https://uplink.cyou.soshop.cyou/api.php";
    $apiKey      = "PASTE_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE";   // from your Dashboard

    $ch = curl_init($apiEndpoint);
    curl_setopt_array($ch, [
        CURLOPT_POST           => true,
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS     => http_build_query([
            'api_key' => $apiKey,
            'url'     => $longUrl,
            'title'   => $title,
        ]),
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_TIMEOUT        => 10,
    ]);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    $data = json_decode($response, true);

    if (($data['status'] ?? '') === 'success') {
        return $data['short_url'];   // ready short link
    }
    return false;
}

Step 2: Call It Wherever You Need a Short Link

// ✅ CORRECT — one line, done. No other code is needed.
$short = makeShortLink("https://example.com/some/very/long/page");

if ($short !== false) {
    echo "<a href='" . $short . "'>Visit</a>";
}

✅ How to Connect — The RIGHT Way

Do	Why
Send requests with POST to the single endpoint above	The API ignores everything else
Send api_key and url as form fields	These are the only two required fields
Keep your API key only in server-side PHP code	Keys in HTML/JavaScript can be stolen by visitors
Treat the reply as JSON and read short_url	status = success means the link is ready
Handle false / error replies quietly	Your site keeps working even if our API is briefly unreachable
Use one API key per website	Easier to track usage and revoke if needed

❌ How to Connect — The WRONG Way

Don't	What happens instead
Send a GET request or open the endpoint in a browser	405 METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED — nothing gets shortened
Forget the api_key field	401 MISSING_API_KEY
Use a wrong or revoked key	401/403 error — the key must come from your own Dashboard
Send text, FTP, or JavaScript links instead of real URLs	422 INVALID_URL — only http/https links are accepted
Put your API key inside visible page HTML or client-side JS	Anyone can copy it and use your quota
Try to create links for other people's accounts or manage keys through the API	That is not possible — key management only happens in your Dashboard
Build your own extra plumbing around the API	Not needed — the connector function above already does everything

Response Format

On success — new link (HTTP 201):

{
    "status":      "success",
    "short_code":  "aB3x9K",
    "short_url":   "https://uplink.cyou.soshop.cyou/aB3x9K",
    "long_url":    "https://example.com/very/long/url",
    "duplicate":   false
}

On success — same URL sent again (HTTP 200): identical reply, but with "duplicate": true and the same short link as before. Your code does not need to treat these two cases differently — status = "success" always means the short link is ready to use.

On failure (HTTP 401 / 403 / 405 / 422 / 500):

{
    "status":  "error",
    "code":    "INVALID_API_KEY",
    "message": "This API key does not exist."
}

Error Reference

HTTP	Code	Meaning
405	METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED	Only POST requests are supported
401	MISSING_API_KEY	The api_key field was not sent
401	INVALID_API_KEY	The key is wrong or does not exist
403	API_KEY_REVOKED	The key was revoked from the Dashboard
403	ACCOUNT_BLOCKED	The account behind the key is blocked
422	MISSING_URL	The url field was not sent
422	INVALID_URL	Not a valid http/https URL, or longer than 2048 chars
429	RATE_LIMITED	Too many requests — slow down and retry shortly
500	SERVER_ERROR	Could not generate a short code — retry later

Important Rules

API keys are available only to registered users of this website.
Every short link created through the API belongs to your account and appears in your Dashboard.
Revoking a key in the Dashboard makes it stop working immediately.
If your account is blocked, every key of that account stops working.
Every API-created link gets a unique 6-character code on our own domain.
Sending the same URL twice from the same account returns the same short link — duplicate links are never created, so page refreshes are safe.
Links are never removed automatically. Only administrators can delete links.
The API is rate-limited per key. If you send too many requests too fast you get a 429 RATE_LIMITED error — slow down and retry.

🚀 Ready to connect? Create your free account, generate an API key from the Dashboard, and you're done.