Skip to main content

1.4 FAQs

Do I need an external identity provider?​

See the Prerequisites page.

Why a URL Shortener?​

Besides the obvious (shorter URLs and the ability to "brand" links), link shorteners can serve as “middleware” to essentially “decouple” the source and the destination. And with that decoupling comes a whole host of benefits:

  • the ability to gain analytics over links clicked, who is clicking it, etc (pluggable)
  • the ability to enforce HTTPS (which Blink already does)
  • the ability to healthcheck links in one convenient place (planned)
  • the ability to mass-rename links (such as if you moved your domain) without breaking existing, shortened links (planned)
  • the ability to rename a longer link into a form that’s more readable
  • etc, etc.

But URL shorteners are "bad" for the web!!1!​

Websites “rot” regardless. Millions of links die every day. Domains change. Entire sites are shut down, or their URL format completely changes. Stuff gets paywalled, or simply gets deleted.

To say you shouldn’t try to actively manage (i.e. keep alive) links - all from different websites you can’t control - via link shorteners because “they die anyway once the service goes down” is a bit defeatist, no?

Does this image include a proxy?​

No. This application only speaks HTTP. To setup HTTPS for your self-hosted installation, please see here

Does it give you analytics like Bitly?​

Not off the bat - the "raison d'etre" of Blink is to decouple analytics from the link shortener. However, setting up analytics for Blink can be extremely simple.

Do you have to use a CDN? What about muh privacy?​

You do not have to use a CDN. See the Architecture page for how else it can be used (hint: it can be used "bare" or with any caching layer of your choosing).