How to transform ASP.NET URL without URL routing or URL rewrite?

Question

I am using ASP.NET 2.0 on IIS6 therefore I can’t use system.web.routing. I’ve tried a few URL rewriters but none did what I wanted.

I basically need to transform (read/parse then redirect) URL 1 into 2 with minimum IIS configuration because I don't have the full authority to reconfigure web servers (i.e. ISAP on IIS6 or install 3rd party extensions/libraries). And I can’t transform URL into 3 because all the physical links will break.

Thank you!

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 14 '10 at 03:37

1

Create 404 error handler, e.g. 404.aspx. In that page, parse request URL and extract code using Request.Path. Then, redirect to default.aspx?code=abc123.

You should be able to set 404 (page not found) handler to 404.aspx for your website, most hosting providers allow that.

answered Jan 14 '10 at 03:37

Pavel Chuchuva

22,633
10
99
115

I was going to manually do the parsing and redirect in Application_Error (global.asax) because I couldn't get rid of the aspxerrorpath querry string as I can't capture the value of /abc123 before aspxerrorpath is thrown because Request.Path is alwasy the URL of the 404 error page. – Jeff Jan 14 '10 at 03:51
Make sure you set 404 handler in IIS, not in web.config. – Pavel Chuchuva Jan 14 '10 at 04:08
Do you recommend Application_Error (global.asax) than 404? Becuase I don't have too much control over web servers and we have more than 1 web servers so I prefer the "soft" way. For any IIS setting change, it takes weeks to get approved... – Jeff Jan 14 '10 at 04:16
If you get Application_Error event for extension-less URLs like `http://www.url.com/abc123` by all means, use it. Otherwise you need to configure IIS to use your 404 handler. – Pavel Chuchuva Jan 14 '10 at 21:39
I've configured my dev IIS to forward 404 to my 404 page yet Request.Url and Request.Path both showing the path to 404 page and Request.UrlReferrer is null. – Jeff Jan 14 '10 at 23:29
I sort of don't want to use ApplicationError unless I have no other choice becuase by doing "URL transofmration" in AppError has performance impacts I believe. – Jeff Jan 14 '10 at 23:44
Ok I figured out that I need to use Request["aspxerrorpath"] to read the path. Thanks!!! – Jeff Jan 14 '10 at 23:52
It's so obvious to get value from QueryString I don't know what I was thinking... ^_^ – Jeff Jan 14 '10 at 23:57

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 13 '10 at 23:59

0

I would suggest that you look at using a custom transform with UrlRewriter.net. This link details how you can do it with the Intelligencia.UrlRewriter assembly (about 3/4 of the way down the page). Hopefully is good enough to do what you need.

answered Jan 13 '10 at 23:59

Kane

16,471
11
61
86

I don't think URL rewrite will work because I don't want the URL to be rewritten I only need the URL to be read/parsed then redirect. – Jeff Jan 14 '10 at 01:13

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 14 '10 at 00:53

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    HtmlLink canonicalTag = new HtmlLink();
    canonicalTag.Href = "http://www.url.com/default.aspx";
    canonicalTag.Attributes["rel"] = "canonical";
    Page.Header.Controls.Add(canonicalTag);
}

http://codersbarn.com/post/2009/02/21/ASPNET-SEO-and-the-Canonical-Tag.aspx

How to transform ASP.NET URL without URL routing or URL rewrite?

3 Answers3