Using web.config to configure multiple websites/domains - asp.net

I have several shared hosting accounts with Newtek. They told me one account can be used to host several websites, but I don't know how to do that.
They said it can be done using either an .htaccess or web.config file. And since it's ASP.NET, that suggests web.config is the way to go.
Does anyone know how to use web.config to route requests for a given domain to a subfolder? I assume that subfolder would need to be set as an application starting point, which it appears their control center will allow me to do. I just need to associate that starting point with a particular domain.
And does this sound like a reasonable approach (shy of forking out money for a virtual server)?

If the IIS URL Rewrite Module is installed, you can create a Rule to redirect the request to a subfolder based on the domain name.
<rule name="site2.com" stopProcessing="true">
<match url=".*" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^(www.)?site2.com" />
<add input="{PATH_INFO}" pattern="^/site2/" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="\site2\{R:0}" />
</rule>
Source: https://weblogs.asp.net/owscott/iis-url-rewrite-hosting-multiple-domains-under-one-site

Related

Restrict IIS virtual directory to specific HTTP host header?

I have a website setup in IIS with 2 HTTP Headers (www.mysite.com and [blank]).
There is a virtual directory called 'blog' which points to a WordPress site - this is accessed via www.mysite.com/blog/
Any other requests (e.g. www.site1.com, www.site2.com, something.mysite.com) are handled by the same site (using the [blank] header) and rewrite rules to display the necessary information.
The problem is I don't want /blog/ to be available to anything other than www.mysite.com, as presently I can access it with any of the following:
www.site1.com/blog/
something.mysite.com/blog/
This is because we are also using BlogEngine (for user blogs) and if they set their blog directory to be 'blog' then it clashes with the WordPress one.
Ideally I'd like to be able to add a host header to the virtual directory, but can't find a way to do that, so looking for any other solutions (other than moving the WordPress blog).
Thanks in advance
You can prevent browsing to /blog on non-www.mysite.com sites using a UrlRewrite rule:
<rule name="RequestBlockingRule1" patternSyntax="Wildcard" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="*" />
<conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
<add input="{URL}" pattern="/blog*" />
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="www.mysite.com" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action
type="CustomResponse" statusCode="403"
statusReason="Forbidden: Access is denied."
statusDescription="You do not have permission to view this directory or page." />
</rule>

IIS URL Rewriting and MVC

My hosting plan has a limited number of web applications for use, but unlimited subdomains. I plan to take advantage of these subdomains by using IIS rewriting, like the following:
<rule name="Home Rewrite" enabled="true">
<match url="^(.*)$" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^home\.mydomain\.com$" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="home/{R:1}" />
</rule>
This works fine for the most part, I can go to http://home.mydomain.com and it'll take me to what is essentially http://www.mydomain.com/home as expected.
I am publishing using Web Deploy, and I believe the host is IIS7.
The problem is that I want to take advantage of #Html.ActionLink, but when viewing the source, this resolves out to include the virtual directory.
So what I end up with is a site that works when I go to the original address:
http://www.mydomain.com/home/application
And a site that loads, but doesn't function correctly, at the redirected address:
http://home.mydomain.com/application
With generated URLs in the page source pointing relative to the original address:
/home/application/Account/Login
This applies to links to other pages/routes, bundles, basically anywhere that ~/ or #Html.ActionLink is used.
How do I get around this? I'm hoping to keep the use of #Html.ActionLink at least, I think I can live without the tildes.
I finally found a solution!
https://support.gearhost.com/entries/23689272-URL-Rewrite-Subdomain
My web.config rewrite rule required an extra line:
<rule name="Home Rewrite" enabled="true">
<match url="^(.*)$" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^home\.mydomain\.com$" />
<add input="{PATH_INFO}" pattern="^/home/" negate="true" /> <!-- This one! -->
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="home/{R:1}" />
</rule>
Now everyone is happy :)
You could write a custom HtmlHelper so instead of using ActionLink you can use MyActionLink and it can generate the url you need.

Redirect arbitrary request to directory to particular page in ASP.Net

That title isn't very descriptive, but I couldn't figure out how to phrase my question very well. What I'm trying to do is use a single page to interpret multiple URLs. Here's an example: [domain]/name-of-question.aspx is clearly not a file on the site's server, and yet the server acts like it is. This behavior makes pages much more readable and more easily bookmark-able.
My vision for the solution is to be able to have to server redirect a request to a certain directory to a particular page, whilst appending the name of the page requested to the page as a URL parameter. Here's what I mean: [domain]/questions/name-of-question redirects to [domain]/question.aspx?page=name-of-question.
This is how reddit does their self posts, I think, but they don't use ASP.Net or IIS.
Is this possible, and if so, how would one implement this behavior? If there's any code you write, please write it in C#, because I don't know VB.Net very well. Thanks!
You need to use URL rewriting to accomplish this.
You have to create a rewrite rule that rewrites any requests to [domain]/questions/{1}
to [domain]/question.aspx?{1}
In ASP.NET you have the URL Rewriter module: http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite
The rule might look similar to this and is applied in the web.config file:
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="RewriteUserFriendlyURL1" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="questions/(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="question.aspx?{R:1}" />
<serverVariables>
<set name="{RESPONSE_CONTENT_TYPE}" value="image/png" />
</serverVariables>
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
EDIT: To change the content type, add the serverVariables section in the rewrite rule and authorise that variable to be set in IIS manager:
If you are using ASP.NET 4.0+, then this might be worth a read, as ASP.NET Routing and URL Rewriting are not necessarily competing technologies, but potentially complementary features.
URL Rewriting vs. ASP.NET Routing

IIS HTTP to HTTPS relative redirect

I recently got a SSL certificate for my website and want to redirect all traffic to HTTPS. I got everything to go to https://mydomain.com but if someone enters http://mydomain.com/anotherpage it drops the other page and just takes the user to the home page.
My rule in my web.config file looks like this:
<rule name="HTTP to HTTPS redirect" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" ignoreCase="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" redirectType="Found" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
</rule>
I also tried https://{HTTP_HOST}{REQUEST_URI} without any success. Can anyone tell me what I need to do to make the website redirect to the proper HTTPS version of the page? I have a feeling it has something to do with the pattern, but I can't seem to figure out the syntax.
I found a way to do this, and you don't need the Rewrite module for it. The following worked for me on Windows 8 (IIS 8.5):
Remove the HTTP binding from your site (leave HTTPS in place)
Add another site
Make sure that the new site has HTTP binding
Configure HTTP Redirect as shown:
Now all HTTP request will redirect to your HTTPS site and will preserve the rest of the URL.
Change it to:
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="Redirect to HTTPS" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
I had the same problem where the R:1 was dropping my folders.
I fixed it like this.
<rule name="http to https" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}{REQUEST_URI}"
appendQueryString="false" redirectType="SeeOther" />
</rule>
I can't comment yet or I'd leave this as a comment under AndyH's answer. The solution was correct, though I hit a single further snag (likely tied to the use of Adobe's Coldfusion server). I wanted to share some further research I had to do for any other unfortunate soul who may run into it.
Once set up, the redirect would always end at this url:
https://xxx.xxx.com/jakarta/isapi_redirect.dll
The fix for this was found in an Adobe thread (https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1034854): I had to change an application pool's settings as follows:
Real site (HTTPS binding only, actually contains code and virtual directories)
Application pool's Advanced Settings: Enable 32-Bit Applications : False
Http_Redirect site (HTTP binding only, is a blank shell of a folder with no directories)
Application pool's Advanced Settings: Enable 32-Bit Applications : True
EDIT: Another detail, tied to query string preservation:
Per suggestion in this post (http://www.developerfusion.com/code/4678/permanent-301-redirect-with-querystring-in-iis/)
Add $S$Q at the end of the domain and make sure the box for Redirect all requests to exact destination is checked. Then it will save the query string as well.
I believe AndyH's answer to be the easiest and best way. I have found using the URL rewrite can also conflict with code that may redirect the user to another page. IT commonly broke in our environment. But Andy's solution worked flawlessly. I also think Andy's solution will put less overhead on the server as it doesn't need to examine every url hitting it for possible re-write conditions.
I found a workaround:
Consider what in IIS is consired a website: simply a set of rules, the path in which get files and its bindings.
Furthermore, there's available a function called "HTTP Redirect" (included standardly in IIS), that redirect an host to another, keeping all subdirectory (it makes a relative path). The workaround is to leave just the binding for HTTPS (port 443) in your website, and create another with the binding on HTTP (port 80) and set for this an HTTP redirect to your URL with https://.
For example, consider a website called mytest and its urls http://www.mytest.com/ and https://www.mytest.com/.
Set for it instead only binding on https://www.mytest.com/, and delete the http binding. Then create a new website with the same local path, called mytest http with just a binding over port 80 (http://www.mytest.com/) and set for this one an HTTP Redirect to https://www.mytest.com/.
Simple and clean, and that should be as fast as directly the https url for the user, because it's just an internal redirect. I hope that can work for you!
You can add the URL Rewrite module to IIS (IIS 7 or higher) which allows you to add create the redirect in a visual way. The module can be downloaded here.
This step-by-step tutorial worked wonders for me and explains that when using this module, all it actually does is add some code to your web.config file as such:
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="Redirect to HTTPS" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" redirectType="SeeOther" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
I have found that the
<action type="Redirect" redirectType="Found" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
syntax will only work for the website's ROOT web.config file.
If the rewrite rule is applied to a virtual web.config file, then use..
<action type="Redirect" redirectType="Found" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}{URL}" />
The {URL} syntax will include the initial forward slash, the virtual path, and any URL parameters.

IIS Rewrite not working (but redirection does)

I was trying to play with URL re-writing using the Rewrite Module 2.0 but I had no luck getting it to work. What I'm trying to do is re-write all calls to web app at port 80 to other applications hosted in IIS (or maybe on different servers on the network). Using the GUI provided by IIS I created the following rule:
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="ReverseProxyInboundRule1" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="site1/(.*)" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="http://localhost:7001/{R:1}" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
Quiet simple, but unfortunately it does not work. On the other hand, when I change the action type to Redirect, it works fine.
What could be the problem?
I ran into this same issue yesterday, and it took me a long time to figure out.
The key here is that you've got an http:// prefix in your rewrite action; that makes this a special case that needs to be handled by Application Request Routing. The first step is to make sure that the Application Request Routing module is installed. You can find the module at https://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/application-request-routing. Once that is installed, go to your IIS web server (a level up from your web site), and open the Application Request Routing Cache feature. From the actions on the right, choose Server.Proxy.Settings, and make sure that the "Enable Proxy" checkbox is checked. This allows the URL rewrite task to be re-routed to Application Request Routing, and your reverse proxy should work for external requests.
The idea came from this excellent blog post from 2009: http://ruslany.net/2009/04/10-url-rewriting-tips-and-tricks/
Stumbled across this old post when I was trying to solve the same issue.
SOLVED!
Using Rewrite URL feature in IIS Services Manager I created a friendly URL rule.
This worked ok and when I looked at the rule in the web.config file (www root) it showed 1 rule to redirect and 1 rule to rewrite.
I edited this to suit 1 match. Then I just duplicated this code editing the product ID for each. Example below:
<rule name="RedirectUserFriendlyURL1" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^product\.php$" />
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_METHOD}" pattern="^POST$" negate="true" />
<add input="{QUERY_STRING}" pattern="^id_product=\b35\b" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="990mm-bohemia-cast-iron-electric-radiator"
appendQueryString="false" />
</rule>
The first rule looks for the string "product.php" in the URL and "id_product=35", it then redirects to "990mm-bohemia-cast-iron-electric-radiator" which currently does not exist. Then (see below)
<rule name="RewriteUserFriendlyURL1" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^\b990mm-bohemia-cast-iron-electric-radiator\b" />
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="product.php?id_product=35" />
</rule>
This rule rewrites the "product.php?id_product=35" bit to `990mm-bohemia-cast-iron-electric-radiator", creating the new location for the redirect.
Do make sure MVC routing doesn't steal your request. To prevent that from happening, ignore the route you're trying to rewrite:
RouteTable.Routes.Ignore("blog/{*pathInfo}");
Inspired by: https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/3645/how-to-setup-a-reverse-proxy-with-sitecore
Change the Rewrite URL to AbsolutePath instead putting http://...
it should be
<action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}" />
It worked for me, but in my case, I have been rewrite to a fixed webpage.

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