Expand Tumblr shortened link - api

Question

I have a Tumblr link like this: http://tumblr.com/XXXXXXXX
In order to communicate with their API I need the hostname of the blog, therefore I need to expand the link to the complete link. Something like: http://blogname.tumblr.com/post/XXXXXX
How can I expand a tumblr shortened link?

Answer 1

Within the Tumblr API, I do not believe it is possible as mentioned by Derek Gottfrid. If you are using it within your app or service you can try looking at the headers.
For example in python, you can use urllib2
import urllib2
tumb = urllib2.urlopen('http://tumblr.com/XXXXXXXX')
print tumb.url
In PHP, you can use the get_headers method
$url = 'http://tumblr.com/XXXXXXXX'
print_r(get_headers($url))

Answer 2

Here's another way to do it in Ruby. It needs to follow tumblr redirection. From http://tmblr.co/XXXXX to http://www.tumblr.com/XXXXX and lastly to the expanded URL. From Net::HTTP documentation:
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
def get_permalink(uri_str, limit=5)
# You should choose better exception.
raise ArgumentError, 'HTTP redirect too deep' if limit == 0
response = Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(uri_str))
case response
when Net::HTTPOK then uri_str
when Net::HTTPMovedPermanently
get_permalink(response['location'], limit-1)
when Net::HTTPFound
get_permalink(response['location'], limit-1)
end
end
Hope it helps someone