Visual Studio XML IntelliSense for URL Rewrite 1.1
If you ever tried to write or modify rewrite rules in web.config file by using Visual Studio 2008 XML Editor, you may have noticed that the Visual Studio XML IntelliSense does not work for all URL Rewrite Module configuration elements. This is because the XML schema for <rewrite> element is not registered in Visual Studio Schema Cache. This post provides the instructions on how to register URL Rewrite schema with Visual Studio to enable IntelliSense support.
To enable IntelliSense support for URL Rewrite 1.1 follow these steps:
Step 1: Download the URL Rewrite schema from the location below:
VS IntelliSense for URL Rewrite
Disclaimer: The schema file and the helper script file contained in this package are provided by me and not by Microsoft. The are not officially supported by Microsoft. Use them at your own risk.
Step 2: Extract the content of the file to a directory of your choice, for example C:\rewrite_vsintellisense\
Step 3: Start the elevated privilege command line window by typing “cmd” in the search bar of the Windows Start Menu and then right clicking the “cmd” item in the search result and selecting “Run As Administrator”.
Step 4: In the command line window type the following:
cd \rewrite_intellisense
Replace the path if you unpacked the files into a different location
cscript UpdateSchemaCache.js
You should see the output as below:
Check that the XML IntelliSense in Visual Studio XML editor works now:
In case you want to restore back the original XML schema used by Visual Studio, here is how you can do it:
cd “%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Xml\Schemas" move DotNetConfig_beforeRewrite.xsd DotNetConfig.xsd
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ruslany on August 13th 2009 in URLRewrite



Visual Studio XML IntelliSense for URL Rewrite 1.1 | RuslanY Blog…
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The same issue exists in Visual Studio 2010, but after running the script, no love. Is there an updated version for VS 2010?
@Gene: This is be because the XML schema cache is located in a different location in VS2010. Can you open the UpdateSchemaCache.js and replace this line:
var vs9CommonTools = shell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( “%VS90COMNTOOLS%” );
with this line:
var vs9CommonTools = shell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( “%VS100COMNTOOLS%” );
After that try running the script and see if that helps.
The download link doesn’t work for the schema file. Do you have an updated schema for version 2?
@David: The links should work now. There was some glitch in the WP download plugin.
I do not yet have a schema for v2.0. I will try to provide it sometime soon.
Any news for v2.0 schema?
Visual Studio XML IntelliSense for URL Rewrite 2.0…
Last year I published an XML schema for URL Rewrite 1.1 that could be used to enable IntelliSense support when editing rewrite rules in Visual Studio XML editor. Now that the URL Rewrite 2.0 has been released, the old schema will not work for the the n…
@Barbaros: use the link in the trackback above to get the schema for v2.0.
[...] has released a Visual Studio schema update for URL Rewrite which is available as a free quick download. Contrary to the title of the post, the installer [...]
Thanks for posting the update js for vs 2010 install. Works great. Thanks.
I had to add the node to DotNetConfig35.xsd instead of DotNetConfig.xsd on VS 2010 and .net 4