- THE MODIFIED BASE64 CHARACTER SET
- AUTHOR, COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
String::Random::NiceURL - random ID strings suitable for URLs.
use String::Random::NiceURL qw(id); my $id = id(6); print "id=$id\n";
This module allows you to create sparse and distributed IDs such as those used for YouTube videos. It uses the modified base 64 character set so that the IDs are suitable for use in URLs. It also makes sure that the first and last chars of your ID are not the dash or underscore characters (this helps some programs detect the URLs correctly, for example when double-clicking to highlight the text).
Any length IDs (greater than two chars) can be created and could be used for blog posts, short URLs, images, videos and many other entities.
Other uses could be salts, session IDs, tokens when checking email addresses and nonces for XSRF tokens.
As an example, let's generate some IDs of varying lengths (just as we did in the SYNOPSIS): For example, for lengths of 2, 6, 11 and 32:
id(2) => 6p id(6) => NIK_qV id(11) => 2qUROkj-1X6 id(32) => sTQ9TP-Y-2cpKlL1f2-6VCgWvAYTZTDB ...etc...
This is the only method provided by this module. It can be exported, or called as such:
It returns an ID string of the specified number of characters.
If the length if not provided, non-numeric or less than two, the function will croak with a user-error message.
THE MODIFIED BASE64 CHARACTER SET
The normal Base64 char set includes all the characters, number and the two characters (+) and (/). Since URLs don't usually like the + or / (they have to be URL encoded), the modified set uses the dash (-) and underscore (_) instead. There is also no use or need for (=) at the end since we are not encoding a value, merely creating a random string.
Therefore the complete set of 64 chars used is:
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64#URL%5Fapplications for further info.
Please report any bugs or feature requests to
bug-string-random-niceurl at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=String-Random-NiceURL. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
You can also look for information at:
RT: CPAN's request tracker
AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
AUTHOR, COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
<andy at chilts dot org>
Copyright (c) 2010, Apps Attic Ltd, all rights reserved.
This module is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.