Using Symbols in Wordpress Permalinks / URLs - asp.net

Question

The short problem: Editing the sanitize function has allowed me to add uppercase letters and symbols to my permalinks. However, when I use a symbol (like: ".", "=", "?") the link ends up in a 404 error. I'm guessing because the database can't access the page with a URL like that.
Are there any ways around this?
The long problem: I'm transitioning someone's site that was written in ASP on a windows server into a wordpress site. I've copied each page's content and created a wordpress site that duplicates the site structure of the current ASP one. But I need to keep the URL's the same, and his current site pages look like "http://thesite.com/ContentPage.aspx?page=subpage".

Answer 1

You can create a page hierarchy, apply a rewrite rule and create a page template, to solve the problem without having to add extra content to the permalink and the final URL would end up looking like the old ASP URL.
The query variable 'page' holds the pagenumber for a single paginated Post or Page, using this queryvar isn't recommended. You should review the need to maintain the url structure.
Taking this page structure for example:
Animals (permalink: http://thesite.com/animals/)
Lion (permalink: http://thesite.com/animals/lion)
Zebra (permalink: http://thesite.com/animals/zebra)
Others (permalink: http://thesite.com/animals/others)
Flowers (permalink: http://thesite.com/flowers/)
If I access http://thesite.com/Animals.aspx?page=Lion I should be presented the "Lion" page
For this to work you have to add to your functions file the add_rewrite_rule function with the following regex:
^([\w\d\-]*)(?:\.aspx?).*$
(I'm not used to regexp so i guess there's an easier way to write it.)
resulting in something like this:
add_rewrite_rule('^([\w\d\-]*)(?:\.aspx?).*$','index.php?pagename=$matches[1]','top');
Use it in a function like the example in the Codex. This way you'll access http://thesite.com/index.php?pagename=Animals when entering http://thesite.com/Animals.aspx?page=Lion in the address bar.
Do not forget to flush and regenerate the rewrite rules database after modifying rules.
So now you must get the 'page' queryvar and do a custom query to get the page children. The best way to do this is creating a page template. Create a file aspx-template.php in your theme folder and add the following:
<?php
/**
* Template Name: aspx Template
*/
get_header(); ?>
<div id="primary" class="content-area">
<main id="main" class="site-main" role="main">
<?php
$pagename = get_post_field( 'post_name', get_the_ID() );
if ( isset($_GET['page']) ) : $pagename .= '/' . sanitize_text_field( $_GET['page'] ); endif;
$args = array(
'post_type' => 'page',
'pagename' => $pagename,
'post_status' => 'publish'
);
$query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $query->have_posts() ) : while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post();
?>
<article>
<header class="entry-header">
<?php the_title( '<h1 class="entry-title">', '</h1>' ); ?>
</header><!-- .entry-header -->
<div class="entry-content">
<?php the_content(); ?>
</div><!-- .entry-content -->
</article><!-- #post-## -->
<?php endwhile; wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
<?php else : ?>
<div>
No page found
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
</main><!-- .site-main -->
</div><!-- .content-area -->
<?php get_footer(); ?>
Don't forget to associate the template to the parent page (Animals).