Redirecting default.aspx to root virtual directory

Question

Hi,

I have a simple ASP.NET 3.5 application running under IIS7 under a virtual directory. So the URL of my app is like http://site.com/app. I want to 301-redirect the request to site.com/app/default.aspx to site.com/app for better SEO. I have to do this redirect through code only, not by any IIS settings. I am unable to do so via code mentioned in this article:

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/072810-1.aspx

The code:

if (request.RawUrl.Equals("/default.aspx"))
{
newUrl = string.Format("{0}://{1}{2}",
                 request.Url.Scheme,
                 request.Url.Authority,
                 request.RawUrl.Remove(request.RawUrl.LastIndexOf("/default.aspx", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)));

               context.Response.Status = "301 moved permanently";
               context.Response.AddHeader("Location", newUrl);
}

seems to go into an infinite loop when the application is under a virtual directory. the request.RawUrl property always returns "/default.aspx" even after a 301 redirect causing the infinite loop. How can I fix this issue?

thanks,

Asif

Answer 1

Since you use IIS7, try this:

<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
      <rules>
        <rule name="default page" stopProcessing="true">
          <match url="^default\.aspx$" />
          <action type="Redirect" url="{R:0}" redirectType="Permanent" />
        </rule>
      </rules>
    </rewrite>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

This is just a quick example, you can modify it to suit your need. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

The above code will work fine as long as you dont have a sub-directory. AFAIK, its a bug in ASP.NET: the Request.RawUrl should NOT contain "/default.aspx" when the URL does not have that extension. I have tested your code and it works fine without a sub directory, but if default.aspx is under a directory, the Request.RawUrl object fails to get rid of default.aspx and hence the infinite loop.