ASP.NET Core 2.0 URL Rewriting

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ASP.NET Core ASP.NET Core 2.0URL Rewriting

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Tridip Bhattacharjee9y ago
Can we do self host asp.net mvc5 ?
Tridip Bhattacharjee9y ago
Would like to recommend any best book which teach people from scratch asp.net core easy way.
- Guest User9y ago
  Not many books out there. There is one from Apress by Adam Freeman but I think it covers 1.1 (although most of bits in 1.1 and 2.0 are same). There is one from manning but its not published yet although you can buy it's early release copy.
- Guest User9y ago
  My blog has many articles on ASP.NET Core, I am porting them here too (with help of great editors here). You may like to take a peek there: https://tahirnaushad.com
Tridip Bhattacharjee9y ago
Asp.net core can be self host? old version like asp.net mvc 5 can be self host? please guide me with right url on this topic. thanks
- Guest User9y ago
  These two links to documentation from ASP.NET Core team could be useful:
- Guest User9y ago
  Https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/aspnet/core/fundamentals/hostinghttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/aspnet/core/fundamentals/servers/
- Guest User9y ago
  Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/aspnet/core/fundamentals/hosting
Tridip Bhattacharjee9y ago
How to rewrite http to https with AddRedirect....any idea.
- Guest User9y ago
  I've written about it here https://tahirnaushad.com/2017/09/09/using-https-in-asp-net-core-2-0/
Tridip Bhattacharjee9y ago
What is the meaning of these line of code taken from you one. app.Run(async context => { var path = context.Request.Path; var query = context.Request.QueryString; await context.Response.WriteAsync($"New URL: {path}{query}"); });
- Guest User9y ago
  It's adding a middleware to the pipeline. For more details: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/asp-net-core-2-0-middleware/
Talha Bin Afzal9y ago
Can you guide about the hosting of .Net core app?
- Guest User9y ago
  Where would you like to host? Azure? Self-Hosting? Container? The details differ as you can imagine. I've written about hosting in docker and Azure here https://tahirnaushad.com/2017/08/16/asp-net-core-problem-solution-series/
- Guest User9y ago
  I've written about hosting Docker images in Azure: https://tahirnaushad.com/2017/09/19/deploying-asp-net-core-2-0-app-to-azure-using-docker/
- Guest User9y ago
  Official documentation has a nice tutorial to host without Docker: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/aspnet/core/tutorials/publish-to-azure-webapp-using-vs

Problem

How to implement URL rewriting in ASP.NET Core.

Solution

In Startup, configure RewriteOptions and middleware for URL rewriting.

public void Configure(
IApplicationBuilder app,
IHostingEnvironment env)
{
var rewrite = new RewriteOptions()
.AddRedirect("films", "movies")
.AddRewrite("actors", "stars", true);
app.UseRewriter(rewrite);
app.Run(async context =>
{
var path = context.Request.Path;
var query = context.Request.QueryString;
await context.Response.WriteAsync($"New URL: {path}{query}");
});
}

Run and browse to /films. You’ll notice a redirect.

ASP.NET Core

Browse to /actors, you’ll notice a rewrite,

ASP.NET Core

Discussion

URL Rewriting is about modifying the request URL based on custom rules in order to decouple the address from the underlying resource. This could be for reasons like security, SEO, user-friendly URL, and redirect HTTP to HTTPS etc.

When you’re unable to use the rewriting features of web servers (IIS, Apache, Nginx), ASP.NET Core provides an alternate option, i.e., Response Rewrite middleware. Its performance and feature set won’t match the server based rewriting features though.

Rewrite middleware is capable of doing both redirects and rewrites.

Redirect

It’s a client-side operation and works like this,

The client requests a resource e.g. /films.
The server responds with status code 301 (Moved Permanently) or 302 (Found) with new Location header, instructing a client to request the new location e.g. /movies.
Client makes a request to the new location which will also be shown in the address bar.

Rewrite

It’s a server-side operation and works like this,

Client requests a resource e.g. /actors
Server will internally map to new location e.g. /stars and return 200 (OK).
Client will not know anything about this internal process and will still see the requested URL in address bar.

Rules

Redirect and Rewrite rules are Regular Expressions, details of which could be found in the "Useful Links" section below.

Custom Rules

You could also create custom rules by creating a class and implementing IRule interface.

public class MoviesRedirectRule : IRule
{
private readonly string[] matchPaths;
private readonly PathString newPath;
public MoviesRedirectRule(string[] matchPaths, string newPath)
{
this.matchPaths = matchPaths;
this.newPath = new PathString(newPath);
}
public void ApplyRule(RewriteContext context)
{
var request = context.HttpContext.Request;
// if already redirected, skip
if (request.Path.StartsWithSegments(new PathString(this.newPath)))
{
return;
}
if (this.matchPaths.Contains(request.Path.Value))
{
var newLocation = $"{this.newPath}{request.QueryString}";
var response = context.HttpContext.Response;
response.StatusCode = StatusCodes.Status302Found;
context.Result = RuleResult.EndResponse;
response.Headers[HeaderNames.Location] = newLocation;
}
}
}

Custom rule can be added to RewriteOptions.

var rewrite = new RewriteOptions()
.Add(new MoviesRedirectRule(
matchPaths: new[] { "/films", "/features", "/albums" },
newPath: "/movies"));

Source Code

GitHub

Useful Links

URL Rewriting