Custom Domains for Short Links

You can replace Airship’s standard airsp.co or airsp.eu domains for shortened links with your own custom short link domain. To take advantage of a shortened, custom domain, you must:

1. Register your short domain name with a Domain Name Registrar.

   Your custom short link domain can include a subdomain, but it cannot include a path.

   • Supported: https://my.site.co
   • Not Supported: https://mysite.co/path

    Note

   While your custom short link domain cannot contain a path, the links that you use in your messages can, of course, contain paths.

2. Host your domain. Airship supports custom short link domains using HTTP and HTTPS.

3. Implement a redirect configuration applicable to the web server you use. This document contains instructions for a few common web servers.

   • nginx server configuration
   • Apache server configuration
   • Microsoft IIS configuration
      Note

     Sample configurations on this page may differ from your actual setup.

4. Contact Airship Support  to enable your custom short link domain.

When you send an SMS/MMS message from Airship with link shortening enabled:

• Your end users will receive a shortened link, e.g., http://mysite.co/abcd1234.
• Your domain must forward http://mysite.co/abcd1234 to https://airsp.co/abcd1234 or https://airsp.eu/abcd1234 (depending on your Airship data center).
• Airship will handle the final redirect to the full URL that you provided in your original message, e.g., http://myfullsite.com/longURL?query=1234.

Nginx Server Configuration

Use one of the following configurations to redirect your custom short link domain to Airship. The request_uri appended to your custom short link domain — e.g., https://mysite.co/abcd1234 — passes through to Airship’s short link domain — e.g., https://airsp.co/abcd1234. Airship then resolves the shortened link, redirecting the user to the original link in your message — e.g., https://myfullsite.com/deals?cart=4321id=0987lkjh.

server {
    listen 80;
    
    location / {
      return 303 https://airsp.co$request_uri;
    }
}

server {
	listen 80;
	    
    location / {
        return 303 https://airsp.co$request_uri;
    }
}

server {
	listen 443 ssl;
	ssl on;
	ssl_certificate 	/etc/nginx/ssl-certs/airsp.crt;
	ssl_certificate	/etc/nginx/ssl-certs/airsp.key;

	location / {
		return 303 https://airsp.co$request_uri;
	}
}

Apache Server Configuration

Use one of the following configurations to redirect your custom short link domain to Airship. The request_uri appended to your custom short link domain — e.g., https://mysite.co/abcd1234 — passes through to Airship’s short link domain — e.g., https://airsp.co/abcd1234. Airship then resolves the shortened link, redirecting the user to the original link in your message — e.g., https://myfullsite.com/deals?cart=4321id=0987lkjh.

<VirtualHost *:80>
	... other .conf code...
	<Location />
		Redirect 303 https://airsp.co%{REQUEST_URI}
	<Location>
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost _default_:443>
  ... other .conf code...
  <Location />
      Redirect 303 https://airsp.co%{REQUEST_URI}
  </Location>
</VirtualHost>

In your sites-available/000-default.conf file add the following two lines. This assumes that the mod_rewrite module is enabled for your server.

<VirtualHost *:80>
	... other .conf code...
	<Location />
		Redirect 303 https://airsp.co%{REQUEST_URI}
	<Location>
</VirtualHost>

Microsoft IIS Configuration

Use the following configuration to redirect your custom short link domain to Airship. The request_uri appended to your custom short link domain — e.g., https://mysite.co/abcd1234 — passes through to Airship’s short link domain — e.g., https://airsp.co/abcd1234. Airship then resolves the shortened link, redirecting the user to the original link in your message — e.g., https://myfullsite.com/deals?cart=4321id=0987lkjh.

1. Click Default Web Site.
2. In the Feature View, click URL Rewrite.
3. In the Actions panel, click Add rules….
4. In the Add Rules dialog, select Blank Rule and click OK.
5. When defining the Rewrite Rule, set the following:
   • Requested URL: Matches the Pattern
   • Using: Regular Expressions
   • Pattern: [^/]*$, which matches the request URI through the end of the regex string
   • Ignore Case: unchecked
   • Action Type: Redirect
   • Redirect URL: https://airsp.co/{R:0} where {R:0} specifies the request URI
   • Append query string: unchecked
   • Redirect type: See Other (303)