RuslanY Blog

Today IIS team has made the URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 Release To Web (RTW) available for download. This is a final, production-ready release that is officially supported by Microsoft.

Install the URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 RTW today!

Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 RTW (x86)

Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 RTW (x64)

Upgrade from Go Live release

If you already have Go Live release of URL Rewrite module installed then the installation package will upgrade it to RTW release. All rewrite rules in applicationHost.config and web.config files will be preserved. Note that system reboot may be necessary when upgrading from Go Live to RTW release.

ASP.NET update

The installer for URL Rewrite module includes an update for ASP.NET runtime. The update has fixes for bugs specific to URL rewriting. The update is applied only if the machine where URL Rewrite module is being installed has .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1 or higher. If required version of .NET Framework is installed after URL Rewrite module has been installed, then the ASP.NET update can be applied by re-running URL Rewrite module installer in repair mode. Continue Reading »

One of the very cool features of URL Rewrite Module is its integration with IIS Failed Request Tracing. When you have rewrite rules that do not work the way you expect them to work - enable Failed Request Tracing and you will get the entire history of how rewrite rules were applied on the requested URL. I use Failed Request Tracing all the time and it has proven to be a great help when debugging and troubleshooting rewrite rules.

Continue Reading »

Last week I have recorded a video screencast that shows how to use URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 to perform some common URL manipulations tasks. Today this video has been published on IIS.NET - check it out at this location.

The video demonstrates how to create rewrite rules to perform the following tasks:

• Enabling user friendly and search engine friendly URLs for dynamic web pages;
• Enforcing canonical host names, so that site visitors as well as search engines always use a particular domain name for your web site;
• Using rewrite maps to define static mappings between requested and rewritten URLs;
• Blocking unwanted site crawlers by aborting requests based on HTTP user-agent header.

In addition, the video shows how to test, troubleshoot and debug rewrite rules by using “Test pattern” tool and IIS 7.0 Failed Request Tracing.

Please take a look and leave comments or questions if anything is not clear or you would like to get more information on a particular topic.

Today IIS team has made the Go Live release of URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 available for download. This release contains significant functionality and performance improvements and it is believed to have a quality level suitable for production deployments.

Download the Go Live release of the module today!

Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 Go Live (x86)
Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 Go Live (x64)

Note that the installer for URL Rewrite Module includes the FastCGI update for IIS 7.0. If this update has not been yet installed on your machine it will be installed together with URL Rewrite Module. Continue Reading »

Today I have published two new articles on http://learn.iis.net. The articles are intended to explain the differences between various URL manipulation technologies available in IIS 7.0 and to provide help with choosing of the technology best suited for a particular usage scenario.

Here is the short summary of the articles:

• IIS 7.0 URL Rewriting and ASP.NET Routing -  with the release of URL-rewrite module for IIS 7.0 and the inclusion of ASP.NET routing into the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, there have been a lot of questions from ASP.NET developers about how these two features relate to each other and when to use each. This article describes the differences between these two technologies and provides guidance for Web developers on when to use IIS URL rewriting and when to use ASP.NET routing.
• IIS 7.0 Request Filtering and URL Rewriting - IIS 7.0 includes a request filtering module that is based on the URLScan ISAPI Filter for IIS 6.0. The module helps you tighten security of your Web servers. The URL rewrite module, even though its primary purpose is to rewrite URL paths for requests, can also be used as a security enforcement tool that helps prevent access to Web site content. The article compares security related features of these two modules and explains how to choose among them when securing your web server.

Please take a look and leave comments or questions if anything is not clear or you would like to get more information on a particular topic.

Acknowledgements: I want to thank Phil Haack from ASP.NET team and Nazim Lala from IIS team for reviewing the articles and providing great feedback. Also I thank Mike Pope for very high quality editing of the articles.