VS ReLink

Lightweight WordPress link shortener, redirection, and click tracking — no bloat, PHP 8.1+, strict types.

Create short URLs, redirect visitors to any destination, and measure clicks with IP, referrer, and user-agent logging. Built for performance: high-frequency click data lives in a dedicated table, not post meta.

Requirements

Requirement	Version
WordPress	6.0+ (recommended)
PHP	8.1+

Install

1. Clone or copy into wp-content/plugins/vs-relink.
2. Optional: run composer install in the plugin directory (PSR-4 autoload; a built-in fallback autoloader works without Composer).
3. Activate VS ReLink in WordPress admin.
4. Go to ReLinks → Settings, set your Permalink Base (default: re), then save.
5. Visit Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes once (flushes rewrite rules).

Quick start

1. ReLinks → Add New
2. Set the slug (post name) — this becomes the short path, e.g. summer-sale.
3. Enter the Target URL (where visitors should land).
4. Copy the short URL from the list table (clipboard icon) or use the permalink shown when editing.

Example URLs

With permalink base re (default):

https://example.com/re/summer-sale/
https://example.com/re/campaigns/black-friday/

Hierarchical slugs (parent/child ReLinks):

https://example.com/re/parent/child/

With an empty permalink base (root-level — use with care, may conflict with pages):

https://example.com/summer-sale/

Features

Short links & redirects

• Custom post type vs_relink with hierarchical slugs (folder-like structure)
• Redirect types: 301, 302, 307
• Optional forward query parameters from the short URL to the target
• 404 fallback matching — resolves deep paths even when rewrite rules miss a match

Click tracking

• Dedicated table: {prefix}vs_relink_clicks
• Per click: link ID, timestamp, IP, referrer, user agent, bot flag
• Per-link toggle: enable/disable tracking
• Global bot exclusion (Settings) — skips crawlers in statistics
• Log retention — auto-delete old clicks (30 / 90 / 180 / 365 days, or keep forever)

Auto-linker

• Comma-separated keywords on each ReLink
• Automatically links the first occurrence in post content (the_content)
• Useful for affiliate or internal campaign keywords

Partner affiliate links

Configure partners under ReLinks → Partners. Each partner stores:

• Domains — e.g. sonoff.tech (used to auto-suggest the partner when pasting a product URL)
• URL suffix — e.g. ?ref=66&utm_source=affiliate

Affiliate workflow (ReLinks → Add New):

1. Paste Original URL (clean product URL, no affiliate params)
2. Select Partner (auto-suggested from domain)
3. Target URL is computed automatically (redirect destination)
4. Short URL slug is suggested from the product path (editable)

Legacy links without a partner still use a manual Target URL only — no behavior change.

One product URL can have separate ReLinks per partner (duplicate detection is per original URL + partner).

Link options (per ReLink)

Option	Description
Original URL	Clean product URL (affiliate workflow)
Partner	Affiliate partner; appends configured suffix
Target URL	Redirect destination (manual or computed)
Redirect type	301 / 302 / 307
No Follow	SEO attribute on auto-generated links
Sponsored	Mark sponsored auto-links
Forward parameters	Append ?utm_* etc. from short URL to target
Enable tracking	Toggle click logging

Webhooks

• Global Outbound Webhook URL (Settings)
• Non-blocking JSON POST on each tracked click (event: link_click)

Taxonomies

• Link Groups (vs_link_group) — hierarchical folders in admin
• Partners (vs_relink_partner) — affiliate domain + URL suffix configuration

Admin

Native WordPress admin shell with sidebar navigation (no Gutenberg editor for links):

Menu	Purpose
All Links	List with short URL, partner, clicks, copy-to-clipboard
Add Link	Custom link editor (affiliate URLs, redirect, auto-linker)
Partners	Affiliate domain + URL suffix configuration
Groups	Folder taxonomy for organizing links
Reports	Charts and click analytics (Chart.js)
Tools	Migration, import/export, health scan, .htaccess export
Settings	Permalink base, bots, retention, webhook

Tools

ReLinks → Tools

Pretty Link Lite migration

Imports links from the wp_prli_links table (Pretty Link Lite) into vs_relink posts, preserving slugs where possible.

JSON export / import

• Export all ReLinks to JSON (download)
• Import on another site with optional domain search & replace on target URLs

Server redirection (.htaccess)

Download Apache rewrite rules for static redirects — useful when decommissioning WordPress on a legacy host.

Link health scanner

Batch AJAX scan: verifies each ReLink returns HTTP 200 from its short URL.

WP-CLI

# Check all links (HTTP status)
wp relink check

# Overview: total links and clicks
wp relink stats

# Create affiliate link (preview)
wp relink create --url="https://sonoff.tech/en-hu/products/sonoff-basic-din-rail-matter-over-wifi-smart-switch-basic-1gsp" --partner=sonoff-official --dry-run

# Create affiliate link
wp relink create --url="https://sonoff.tech/..." --partner=sonoff-official

REST / Abilities API

Admin-only routes under wp-abilities/v1 (when supported):

Ability	Description
relink/health-check	Run link health check
relink/get-stats	Aggregate statistics
relink/export	Export links as JSON
relink/create-link	Create affiliate link from original URL + partner

Requires manage_options.

Database

Clicks table: wp_vs_relink_clicks

Column	Type	Notes
id	BIGINT	Primary key
link_id	BIGINT	vs_relink post ID
timestamp	DATETIME	Click time
ip_address	VARCHAR(45)	Visitor IP
referer	TEXT	HTTP Referer
user_agent	TEXT	Browser / bot UA
is_bot	TINYINT	Bot flag

Post meta (per ReLink)

Meta key	Purpose
_vs_relink_original_url	Clean product URL (affiliate workflow)
_vs_relink_target_url	Destination URL
_vs_relink_type	Redirect code (301, 302, 307)
_vs_relink_keywords	Auto-linker keywords
_vs_relink_nofollow	yes / empty
_vs_relink_sponsored	yes / empty
_vs_relink_forward_params	yes / empty
_vs_relink_tracking	no disables tracking

Options

Option	Default	Description
vs_relink_base	re	Permalink prefix (empty = root)
vs_relink_exclude_bots	1	Exclude bots from stats
vs_relink_log_retention	0	Days to keep clicks (0 = forever)
vs_relink_webhook_url	—	Outbound webhook endpoint
vs_relink_db_version	1.1.0	Schema version

Architecture

vs-relink/
├── vs-relink.php          # Bootstrap, activation
├── composer.json          # PSR-4: Vs\ReLink\
├── src/
│   ├── Plugin.php
│   ├── PostTypes/ReLink.php
│   ├── Taxonomies/LinkGroup.php
│   ├── Taxonomies/Partner.php
│   ├── Core/
│   │   ├── RedirectHandler.php   # template_redirect
│   │   ├── Permalinks.php        # Rewrite rules
│   │   ├── AutoLinker.php
│   │   ├── PartnerUrlBuilder.php
│   │   ├── LinkFactory.php
│   │   ├── WebhookService.php
│   │   └── LogRotation.php
│   ├── Database/Schema.php
│   ├── Stats/StatsRepository.php
│   ├── Admin/                    # UI, migration, tools
│   ├── Api/AbilitiesController.php
│   └── CLI/CLI.php
└── CURSOR.md              # Agent / dev conventions

Development

composer install   # optional; fallback autoloader included

Conventions

• declare(strict_types=1); in all PHP files
• Namespace: Vs\ReLink
• Prefer small, focused classes (~200 lines)
• See CURSOR.md for architecture rules

Useful commands

wp relink stats
wp relink check

After changing Permalink Base, save plugin settings and flush permalinks.

Pairing with LW Download

Use VS ReLink for marketing/affiliate short links and LW Download for file delivery and download statistics. They are independent plugins and can run on the same site.

Plugin	Repo
LW Download	bekreative/lw-download
VS ReLink	bekreative/vs-relink

License

GPL-2.0-or-later

Author

WPSuli