URL Rewriting in ASP.NET using global.asax and web.config

URL rewriting is very important for search engines like google, yahoo, etc. as we know website getting most of the traffic from search engines.


Here I am explaining 2 way to rewrite URL in asp.net.
URL rewrining using web.config and URL rewriting using global.asax


URL rewrining using web.config:
URL rewriting in web.config is only use for small number of pages. Here you have to rewrite every page manually in web.config. I am writing sample code for 4 urls.
xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<urlMappings enabled="true">
 <add url="~/About-company.aspx"
   mappedUrl="~/index.aspx?id=1" />
 <add url="~/About-products.aspx"
   mappedUrl="~/index.aspx?id=2" />
 <add url="~/Contact-us.aspx" 
   mappedUrl="~/index.aspx?id=3" />
 <add url="~/our-team.aspx" 
   mappedUrl="~/index.aspx?id=4" />
 urlMappings>
. . .
configuration>

URL rewriting using global.aspx:


This very simple way and very use full. In this way we can rewrite N number of pages and there is no need extra server configuration. Only you have to use Application_BeginRequest event. Inside this event use Context.RewritePath method to set which URL will execute internally in code behind. Here is the code:

void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
 // Get the current path
 string CurrentURL_Path = Request.Path.ToLower();

 if (CurrentURL_Path.StartsWith("/news/"))
 {

   CurrentURL_Path = CurrentURL_Path.Trim("/");
   string NewsID = CurrentPath.Substring(CurrentPath.IndexOf("/"));
   HttpContext MyContext = HttpContext.Current;
   MyContext.RewritePath("/news-show.aspx?News=" +  NewsID);
 }
}

In next article i will write about URL rewriting using HttpModule.