ASP.NET MVC Url Route supporting (dot) - asp.net

Question

I hope that you can help me with the below problem.
I am using ASP.NET MVC 3 on IIS7 and would like my application to support username's with dots.
Example: http://localhost/john.lee
This is how my Global.asax looks like: (http://localhost/{username})
routes.MapRoute(
"UserList",
"{username}",
new { controller = "Home", action = "ListAll" }
);
The applications works when I access other pages such as http://localhost/john.lee/details etc.
But the main user page doesn't work, I would like the app to work like Facebook where http://www.facebook.com/john.lee is supported.
I used below code and it didn't work for me at all:
<httpRuntime relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping="true" />
I was able to use below code and get the app to accept dots but I definitely wouldn't like to use below code for many different reason, please tell me there is a way to overcome this problem.
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="false" />

Answer 1

Add a UrlRoutingHandler to the web.config. This requires your url to be a bit more specific however (f.e. /Users/john.lee).
This forces every url starting with /Users to be treated as a MVC url:
<system.webServer>
<handlers>
<add name="UrlRoutingHandler"
type="System.Web.Routing.UrlRoutingHandler,
System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
path="/Users/*"
verb="GET"/>
</handlers>
</system.webServer>

Answer 2

Just add this section to Web.config, and all requests to the route/{*pathInfo} will be handled by the specified handler, even when there are dots in pathInfo. (taken from ServiceStack MVC Host Web.config example and this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/12151501/801189)
This should work for both IIS 6 & 7. You could assign specific handlers to different paths after the 'route' by modifying path="*" in 'add' elements
<location path="route">
<system.web>
<httpHandlers>
<add path="*" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" />
</httpHandlers>
</system.web>
<!-- Required for IIS 7.0 -->
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />
<validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
<handlers>
<add name="ApiURIs-ISAPI-Integrated-4.0" path="*" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" preCondition="integratedMode,runtimeVersionv4.0" />
</handlers>
</system.webServer>
</location>

Answer 3

I was facing the same issue. So the best solution for me is:
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"></modules>
<system.webServer>

Answer 4

For anyone getting an 'Cannot create abstract class' exception when using the UrlRoutingHandler approach, it's likely due to:
Using a restricted 'path' (e.g. path="/Files/*") in your web.config declaration, and
A folder/path with the same name exists in your project

Answer 5

I don't think the dot is the problem here. AFAIK the only char that should not be in the user name is a /
Without seeing the route that matches john.lee/details it's hard to say what's wrong, but I'm guessing that you have another route that matches the url, preventing the user details route from being matched correctly.
I recommend using a tool like Glimpse to figure out what route is being matched.