URL shorteners are all the rage—tinyurl.com, tr.im, ow.ly, bit.ly … even Digg are getting in on the action. But wouldn’t it be cool to write your own?
It turns out that doing so is not so hard. We’ve just published Kay Smoljak’s latest article Get Shorty: Trim the Fat with ColdFusion, which takes you step-by-step through the creation of a simple URL-shortening web app in ColdFusion 9. It also comes with a handy little quiz, sponsored by Adobe, to test your understanding of the tutorial.
Now hold your horses folks—we know ColdFusion isn’t for everyone. If ColdFusion isn’t your bag, or you reckon you can write this app in half the time in your favourite development platform, then that’s fantastic. But if you’re interested in reading about how to do it in a super elegant way using the ColdFusion Builder tool, then this is definitely the article for you. You might be surprised.
![Matthew Magain](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/matthew-magain-96x96.jpg)
Matthew Magain is a UX designer with over 15 years of experience creating exceptional digital experiences for companies such as IBM, Australia Post, and sitepoint.com. He is currently the Chief Doodler at Sketch Group, Co-founder of UX Mastery, and recently co-authored Everyday UX, an inspiring collection of interviews with some of the best UX Designers in the world. Matthew is also the creator of Charlie Weatherburn and the Flying Machine.