from django.conf import settings
from urllib import urlencode
from urllib2 import urlopen

def shorten_url(long_url):
     username = settings['BITLY_USERNAME']
     password = settings['BITLY_PASSWORD']
     bitly_url = "http://api.bit.ly/v3/shorten?login={0}&apiKey={1}&longUrl={2}&format=txt"
     req_url = urlencode(bitly_url.format(username, password, long_url)
     short_url = urlopen(req_url).read()
     return short_url