Serve images from a directory but be accessed by a different URL path

Question

How can I specify a URL rewrite in my web.config whereby any request for an image is served from a different directory on disk?

The images are located in directory site-root\foo\bar\images. Normally they're accessible by http://site-root/foo/bar/images/

I'd like the images to be accessible via a different URL like http://site-root/img/

For example:

site-root\foo\bar\images\test.png

to be accessed at

http://site-root/img/test.png

I won't really need a filter for file extensions (png, gif, jpg, etc), but just rather any file/resource being requested from img to be read from the real directory.

How can I use ASP.NET web.config URL rewrites, or any other method, to achieve this?

I'm going for a web.config solution, as this will be deployed to Windows Azure Websites.

dav1dsm1th · Answer 1 · 2013-09-11T02:21:50.670

0

I've achieved this in the past by setting up a virtual directory in IIS to map the URL to a specific folder.

edited Sep 11 '13 at 02:21

answered Sep 11 '13 at 02:06

dav1dsm1th

1,687
2
20
24

Thanks David. Unfortunately, I'm using Windows Azure Websites, and thus don't have access to create virtual dirs. – p.campbell Sep 11 '13 at 03:31
Sorry, I missed that in your question. – dav1dsm1th Sep 13 '13 at 23:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 11 '13 at 18:24

Use this web.config rewrite rule.

<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
  <rules>
    <rule name="Blog Images to Thier Real Location" stopProcessing="true">
      <match url="^img/(.*)" />
      <action type="Redirect" url="foo/bar/images/{R:1}" redirectType="Permanent" />
    </rule>
  </rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>

From Carlos AG's blog post IIS 7.0 and URL Rewrite

Serve images from a directory but be accessed by a different URL path

2 Answers2