URL Rewrite Default Document Web Page to SEO URL - asp.net

Question

I have started using ASP.NET Routing for my site. I have been registering routes via the Application_Start() in my Global.asax file.
i.e.
routes.MapPageRoute("ROUTE-ABOUT", "about", "~/About.aspx");
routes.MapPageRoute("ROUTE-CONTACT", "contact", "~/Contact.aspx");
//etc...
This is working perfectly for the About and Contact pages.
What I Want:
My home page is Home.aspx and what I wanted to do is rewrite anyone that visits
http://localhost/mysite.com/Home.aspx
to
http://localhost/mysite.com/Home
What I've Tried
I have my site running in my local IIS v7.5 on my machine (full
administrator privileges).
I have added the following to my Web.config
Web.config
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="HOMETOSEO" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="Home\.aspx" />
<action type="Redirect" url="home" appendQueryString="false" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

After hours of trying to get this to work I eventually managed to get it working using the following entry in the Web.config and Application_Start() of the Global.asax file:
Web.config
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="default" enabled="true" patternSyntax="ECMAScript" stopProcessing="false">
<match url="(.*)Home\.aspx" ignoreCase="true" />
<action type="Redirect" url="home" appendQueryString="false" />
</rule>
<rule name="lower" enabled="true" patternSyntax="ECMAScript" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="[A-Z]" ignoreCase="false" />
<action type="Redirect" url="{ToLower:{URL}}" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
Global.asax
protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//...
BuildStaticRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
//...
}
public void BuildStaticRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
//...
routes.MapPageRoute("ROUTE-HOME", "home", "~/Home.aspx");
//...
}

Answer 2

If you are using IIS v7.5 you can add this in web.config
<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="HOMETOSEO" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^Home" />
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="Home.aspx" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
When you type http://mysite.com/Home, it will display http://mysite.com/Home.aspx. Is that what you are after or the other way around?

Answer 3

You can do it using a custom route by inheriting from RouteBase - so in your case it would look something like this
public class HomeRoute : RouteBase
{
public override RouteData GetRouteData(HttpContextBase httpContext)
{
if (httpContext.Request.Url.ToString().ToLower().Contains("home.aspx"))
{
httpContext.Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"; //Optional 301 redirect
httpContext.Response.RedirectLocation = "Home";
httpContext.Response.End();
}
return null;
}
public override VirtualPathData GetVirtualPath(RequestContext requestContext, RouteValueDictionary values)
{
return null;
}
}
And then in you register routes you would have
routes.Add("HomeUrl", new HomeRoute());
So that any request to /Home.aspx would automatically redirect to /Home - obviously with a bit of extra work you could make this a bit more generic for any .aspx request.