I have a Python script that unshortens URLs based on the answer posted here. So far it worked pretty well, e.g., with youtu.be, goo.gl,t.co, bit.ly, and tinyurl.com. But now I noticed that it doesn't work for Flickr's own URL shortener flic.kr.
For example, when I enter the URL
https://flic.kr/p/qf3mGd
into a browser, I get redirected correctly to
https://www.flickr.com/photos/106783633@N02/15911453212/
However, when using to unshorten the same URL with the Python script I get the following re-directs
https://flic.kr/p/qf3mgd
http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?short=qf3mgd
http://www.flickr.com/signin/?acf=%2Fphoto.gne%3Fshort%3Dqf3mgd
https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=flickrsignin&.pc=8190&.scrumb=[...]
thus eventually ending up on the Yahoo login page. Unshort.me, by the way, can unshorten the URL correctly. What am I missing here?
Here is the full source code of my script. I stumbled upon some pathological cases with the original script:
import urlparse
import httplib
def unshorten_url(url, max_tries=10):
return __unshorten_url(url, [], max_tries)
def __unshorten_url(url, check_urls, max_tries):
if max_tries == 0:
if len(check_urls) > 0:
return check_urls[0]
return url
if url in check_urls:
return url
unshortended = ''
try:
parsed = urlparse.urlparse(url)
h = httplib.HTTPConnection(parsed.netloc)
h.request('HEAD', url)
except:
return None
try:
response = h.getresponse()
except:
return url
if response.status/100 == 3 and response.getheader('Location'):
unshortended = response.getheader('Location')
else:
return url
#print max_tries, unshortended
if unshortended != url:
if 'http' not in unshortended:
return url
check_urls.append(url)
return __unshorten_url(unshortended, check_urls, (max_tries-1))
else:
return unshortended
print unshorten_url('http://t.co/5skmePb7gp')
EDIT: Full working example with a t.co URL
I'm using Request [0] rather than httplib in this way and it's works fine with https://flic.kr/p/qf3mGd like urls:
>>> import requests
>>> requests.head("https://flic.kr/p/qf3mGd", allow_redirects=True, verify=False).url
u'https://www.flickr.com/photos/106783633@N02/15911453212/'