PHP: Short id like Youtube, with salt

Question

I need to encode/encrypt database ids and append them to my URLs. Security is not an issue I am trying to deal with, but I am looking for something with moderate security. The m

Answer 1

If you want to make the numerical id unguessable from the string, you can use a salt. You should be able to get the id back without collisions. The post Create short IDs with PHP - Like Youtube or TinyURL by Kevin van Zonneveld is a good start. At any rate, check for uniqueness.

Answer 2

Could you not just use PHP's uniqid function to generate a faux-random string from the current timestamp? Then save this alpha-numeric string in the video record at upload time.