Google URL Shortener with Google Scripts

February 10, 2017

You can use Google Apps Script with the Google URL Shortener API to convert any long URL into a short one served through the goo.gl domain. Make sure you replace key with your own key from the Google Console dashboard. You can also bit.ly to shorten URLs.

function shortenURL(longUrl) {
  var key = 'YOUR_KEY';
  var serviceUrl = 'https://www.googleapis.com/urlshortener/v1/url?key=' + key;

  var options = {
    muteHttpExceptions: true,
    method: 'post',
    contentType: 'application/json',
    payload: JSON.stringify({ longUrl: longUrl }),
  };

  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(serviceUrl, options);

  if (response.getResponseCode() == 200) {
    var content = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());
    if (content != null && content['id'] != null) return content['id'];
  }

  return longUrl;
}

The other easier alternative for creating short URLs with the Google URL shortener API doesn’t require you to create a key as it passes the OAuth 2.0 access token for the current user in the header.

function shortenUrl(longURL) {
  var url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/urlshortener/v1/url';

  var payload = { longUrl: longURL };

  var parameters = {
    method: 'post',
    headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer ' + ScriptApp.getOAuthToken() },
    payload: JSON.stringify(payload),
    contentType: 'application/json',
    muteHttpExceptions: true,
  };

  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, parameters);

  Logger.log(response);
}

Google Apps Script

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Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory