How can we generate https://mzl.la/ shortlinks?

SUMO
#1

I’ve been using https://respond.mozilla.community/ to help some people leaving Firefox for Android reviews.
Obviously, I often want to link to SUMO. If I use the provided canned responses, that is no problem and they already use the short-links to https://mzl.la/.
However, that obviously does not work for all of them.

So e.g. I want to generate a short-link for https://support.mozilla.org/de/kb/firefox-android-navigationsleiste-oben-oder-unten, how can I do so?

Note that this is especially required there, because

  1. I do have only 350 characters, so one long support link may nearly take the whole space.
  2. I do not know the language the user speaks, so I would like to link to a language-independent version of a SUMO article. (that may automatically detect and redirect to the correct language)

Edit: Though a DuckDuckGo search I could at least find https://support.mozilla.org/kb/move-navigation-bar, which is condierably shorter and in English, however that’s still very long and makes replying to reviews very hard. Harder than it should be.

How it should be

  • Do have a short-link in each article (at the bottom or so), that I can just copy to link to that article.
  • Also, maybe do have a language selector somewhere.
#2

Hi

Have you tried using bit.ly?

#3

Well… I could of course generate my own links, yes.
However, as for official Mozilla communication this does not look very professional IMHO, especially if you already have your own bit.ly domain (mzl.la runs on that) and especially if you would e.g. mix these in a review.
As such, I’m reluctant to use “unofficial” links in reviews and only want to link to the proper resources.

1 Like
#4

If you use bit.ly to shorten a support.mozilla.org link, it will automatically use mzl.la.

It’s pretty smart. :grinning:

4 Likes
#5

Oh damn. Thanks! Someone should have told me this!

That said, it still makes a lot of sense to integrate that link into the support page directly, IMHO.

#6

I also learned it recently. Thanks to Kiki :). But, it should definitely be easier to find this feature. Maybe that’s something we could ask the team to add on respond.m.c. It could simply be a short message when you first login to the tool.

1 Like
#7

Maybe we should get it added to the “Useful Tools” in the Help Docs…?

#8

Hi all,

Joni said that the articles should automatically generate a shorten link, so this should be a bug.

However, since a few people have asked about this recently, I think we need a public place to document the process so others can easily pick it up.

Let me list down a few places we need to update so I won’t forget:

Anywhere else you think we need to include this information?

1 Like
#9

I’ve submitted an edit to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/a-guide-to-linking-to-support-articles

Also the Forum Guidelines don’t need to be updated. The forum uses wiki syntax for KB article; no URLs are needed.

#10

Thanks, Chris. I don’t know that article exist. And you’re right, Forum uses wiki syntax which makes it easier so I’ll skip the forum guidelines. I’ll go ahead and update the rest of resources I list down there.

#11

Just to give you all updates. Teachable and Social Support Guidelines have been updated and I filed an issue to add bit.ly to Respond Tool’s Help and Documentations.

2 Likes
#12

Joni said that the articles should automatically generate a shorten link, so this should be a bug.

Does that mean it’ll be fixed (added back) in the future?

#13

It’s a known issue, but there’s no timeline on when it will be fixed. The bug is 1467353

1 Like
#14

There are somany URL short app. Personally I use goo.gl and Bit.ly

#15

Is there really a need for link shortener?