Skip to main content

Redirecting a list of paths in IIS to a new location

We often do redirects like the following to move all paths from one relative location to another.


If you need more fine grained control of what url goes where, you can use a redirect map. A redirect map allows one to define a key value pair of old locations to new locations.

Here's a simple example of a rewrite map.
<rewritemaps>
  <rewritemap defaultValue="https://example.com/new" name="Redirects">
      <add key="/full/relative/path/some-page" value="https://example.com/new/page" />
      <add key="/full/relative/path/another-page" value="https://example.com/another/page" />
      <add key="/full/relative/path/new-exciting-post" value="https://example/com/old/news" />
  </rewritemap>
</rewritemaps>


You can then define that map inside a web.config to be used to reroute traffic.

<!--  Web.Config Configuration File Example for a multiple page redirect map.
  Notice you must use full relative urls for the key values.  -->
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <rewritemaps configSource="rewritemaps.config"></rewriteMaps>
      <rules>
        <clear />
        <rule name="RemoveTrailingSlashRule1" stopProcessing="true">
        <match url="(.*)/$" />
        <conditions>
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
        </conditions>
        <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}" />
        </rule>   
        <rule name="Redirect rule1 for Redirects" stopProcessing="true">
          <match url="^files/?" negate="true" />
          <conditions>
            <add input="{Redirects:{REQUEST_URI}}" pattern="(.+)" />
          </conditions>
          <action type="Redirect" url="{C:1}" appendQueryString="False" redirectType="Permanent" />
        </rule>
      </rules>
    </rewrite>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>


This example is pretty straight-forward. There are three non-standard things in the example above.

Trailing Slashes
Because my system was moving over paths which resolved with both with and without the trailing slash in the url, I had to add an extra rule to remove trailing slashes, or else I would have needed rules for both some-page and some-page/.

Excluding Certain Paths from Redirections
In the example above I wanted to redirect everything except the content within the files/ directory. These files I found were being used by other applications and the best solution was to continue to serve these as an archive. This exclusion allowed all but those files to be redirected. If you wish to redirect all requests you could remove or modify the <match negate="true" url="^files/?"> line.

Global Catch All
There were lots of extra paths (like blog tag specific urls) that no longer resolved. By adding a defaultValue to the rewrite map I was able to grab all these exceptions and route them to the new homepage.



Pitfalls to Avoid
  • The way this rule condition is written it is testing for the full relative path, not the location of the web.config. Though the web.config may be located at /full/relative/path/web.config, you still need to have the full relative path in the rewritemap (there maybe sassier way to write the condition to avoid this).
  • The rewriteMap name ("Redirects" in this example) is reused in the condition input, if this does not match the rule will fail.
  • Browsers cache redirects and 301 redirects update search engines, so use incognito or private mode when testing and you might wait to add the redirectType="Permanent" to the action until you are sure you have everything all set.

Microsoft has some more good examples and documentation of rewrite maps at docs.microsoft.com/en-us/iis/extensions/url-rewrite-module/using-rewrite-maps-in-url-rewrite-module.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Attachment Reminder - and more for MS Outlook

I just did it again. We don't like to admit it, but we all have. You write a long letter describing the attachment, press send and then 10 seconds later remember you didn't actually attach the message. I finally decided to do something about it. Turns out it isn't too hard. Chiefly because Jimmy Peña at Code for Excel and Outlook already did all the hard work of writing up an excellent MS Outlook Etiquette Check Macro that does all the dirty work for you. What's left for you to do? In MS Outlook go to Tools > Macros > Visual Basic Editor Under the Project Panel (far left) Browse to Project1 > Microsoft Office Outlook Objects > ThisOutlookSession Double-click ThisOutlookSesson to Open (if you haven't been here before this will be a big blank canvas) Visit Code for Excel and Outlook Etiquette Check Code and select "Copy to Clipboard" at the top of the code. Or you can also copy from the code I've modified below if you prefer....
5 comments
Read more

Simple HTTP Redirect with Querystring in IIS7

HTTP Redirect seems simple enough. Always was in IIS6 and in IIS7 there's even a button labeled HTTP Redirect that promises relative redirects.  It looks like it'll be as easy Apache finally.  That is until you try to redirect a querystring.  Then everything bombs. Turns out it still is relatively easy, except you have to know that Microsoft changed $S$Q to $V$Q. Why? $Ss and $Gs I suspect. And How. In our example we'll redirect all pages under http://olddomain.com/content to http://mydomain.com/content. Pick the virtual directory you want to redirect. e.g. http://olddomain.com/content Click HTTP Redirect under IIS in the IIS management console. In the HTTP Redirect Dialog: Check Redirect requests to this destination Enter your new path ending with $V$Q.  e.g. http://mydomain.com$V$Q Counter-intuitively check Redirect all request to exact destination (instead of relative destination) Choose the appropriate Status Code (Permanent or Temp...
5 comments
Read more

ArcGIS One-to-Many Labeling

ArcGIS is just plain lousy at dealing with any relationship that isn't one-to-one. We all have a slew of hacks just to deal with this limitation. I for one regularly am creating temporary cross-tab queries so I can represent multiple sample results at a collection point, fish surveyed at a cross-section and a host of other relationships. The classic example for mapping comes from the cadastral community and condominium lots. It's an odd situation where more than one person has title to the same piece of ground. How do you represent this? I've got a new trick thanks to Mohammed Hoque's article in ArcUser Magazine. We're going to do a database query inside a label expression, loop through the results and output the entire list to label. For our example we'll use Outfitting Areas in Idaho and we'll label them with the Outfitters and Guide License Numbers and Outfitter Names. 1.) Open ArcGIS and add your spatial layer with the unique identifier shared with...
15 comments
Read more