what is URL rewriting ?
URL rewriting is the process of intercepting an incoming Web request and redirecting the request to a different resource. When performing URL rewriting, typically the URL being requested is checked and, based on its value, the request is redirected to a different URL.
Making URL rewriting on IIS7?
Upgrading to IIS 7 should be rather transparent, unfortunately that is not the case when it comes to URL rewriting as we knew it from IIS 6. In IIS 6 all we had to do was to add a wildcard mapping making sure that all requests went through the ASPNET ISAPI process. After this was done, one could create a global.asax file that would either pass requests directly through or rewrite the URL based on an internal algorithm.
1) Start by opening the IIS Manager and selecting your website.
2) Now enter the “Handler Mappings” section
3) Notice the “StaticFile” handler. Currently it’s set to match * and catch both File and Directory requests. If you look back at the first image, you’ll notice that the error message details that the handler causing the 404 error is the StaticFile handler. As I know that all my static files will have a file extension (also I don’t care for directory browsing), I’ll simply change my StaticFile handler so it only matches *.* – and only files.
What needs to be done now is that we need to map any and all requests to the aspnet_isapi.dll isapi file – just like we would usually do in IIS 6.
Add a new Script Map to the list of Handler Mappings and set it up like this:
The aspnet_isapi.dll file cannot be used as a Handler for websites running in the new IIS 7 Integrated Mode, thus we will need to make our website run in classic .NET mode. Right click your website node in the IIS Manager and select Advanced Settings. Select the “Classic .NET AppPool” and close the dialog boxes:
“Failed to Execute URL”, what a great descriptive error. Fortunately you won’t have to spend hours ripping out hair… As I have already done that – at least I’ll save a trip or two to the barber.
The problem is that the static files are being processed by the aspnet_isapi.dll file instead of simply sending the request along to the StaticFile handler. If you click the “View Ordered List…” link in the IIS Manager from the Handler Mappings view, you’ll see the order in which the handlers are being executed for each request:
When you add a new Script Map it’ll automatically get placed at the very top of the line taking precedence over any other handlers, including the StaticFile one.
What we have to do is to move our Wildcard handler to the very bottom, below the StaticFile handler. By letting the StaticFile handler have precedence over our Wildcard handler we ensure that any static files (matching *.*) gets processed correctly while any other URL’s gets passed along to our own Wildcard handler that’ll do the URL rewriting and make business work as usual:
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