SOLVED pretty urls for IIS

[streever]

Hi all,

OK, so we are running the site on an IIS server, without apache.

I know :-/.

So how do we make it do pretty urls? Is it by using mod_rewrite?

I know windows can't read my .htaccess. What is the comparable? I have tried a lot of searching but no look.

I DID find out that IIS CAN rewrite urls. Can CMSMS handle that? If so I'll install that...

Thanks in advance

[Pierre M.]

Hello,

disclaimer : I'm a Linux-lighttpd-Apache fan and I don't know Windows much.

I think there must be some feature, because Google says "ISAPI rewrite" when I ask "IIS URL rewriting". The answer must be on IIS forums. If you have not choosen Windows yourself, you may point the chooser to MS support. Or your hosting provider is closer and has answers for this FAQ ?

Pierre M.

[streever]

Hey Pierre, thank you for your help.

I hate windows, it is a closed decision though--it's for a school system and they host on MS in house.

Mostly I wonder, does CMSMS LOOK for mod_rewrite by name, or simply does it need rewritten urls?

If the latter is the case
it seems that once I figure out the IIS rewrite it will be easy

if the former is the case
then I don't think it's ever possible

Do you know anything about this? Does CMSMS look SIMPLY for mod_rewrite on apache, or is it just looking for URLS in general?

so is it looking for:
http://mycmssite.com/parent/child as a url, or is it USING mod_rewrite to CREATE these pages?

[calguy1000]

CMS has settings for 'assume mod_rewrite' in the config.php, or it has it's own pretty url mechanism.

[streever]

So, it sounds like "assume" means that it doesn't USE it--it just assumes that the urls are re-written. That's perfect. I'll try out the IIS rewrite, and then post about it here for anyone else in the same boat!!!

[Pierre M.]

Hello again,

you can have almost pretty URLs like .com/index.php/some/path/to/page with the builtin mechanism.
you need mod_rewrite to have .com/some/path/to/page.html

Here is a workaround the closed decision inside the school : run CMSms on LAMP in a free VM virtual appliance.

Pierre M.

[tgmayfield]

I've had good luck in the past with ISAPI Rewrite Lite for my own applications. The CMSMS rewrite rule is actually pretty simple, and it _might_ go directly into ISAPI Rewrite with no changes (the one for forwarding to index.php?page=$1).  They bundle the installation with a regex tester that you can use to play with the rule and verify that input meets output.

[streever]

thank you so much! I'm glad you've experienced this and have some help.

i'll let you all know how it goes.... we're going to start doing it monday.

[streever]

yes, so, it goes poorly!!!

What rules should be in the ISAPI REWRITe, that is what I need to figure out....

tgmayfield, do you have the rewrite rules? I tried those as in CMSMS's included htaccess, but they did not work.

[Pierre M.]

Somebody has said that isapi is almost 99% compatible with mod_rewrite rules.

Pierre M.

[streever]

Yes, and they seem correct!

but unfortunately I don't understand the rules well enough

I don't understand htaccess on php, so it is hard for me to figure this out now in ISAPI Rewrite...
but if TGmayfield or anyone else who has done this before can send me the rules they used--I would truly appreciate it!

I did find rules that worked in ISAPI rewrite, on their board!