iFinity

Written by:
Tuesday, April 01, 2008 10:01 AM 

Firstly, I must inform that I have no connection to the DNN core team, so any conjecture and forecasting I may have is as inaccurate as the next person.  I don't have the inside line.

What I do have is an observance of some changes coming into the DNN framework, and what I think these might mean for the future of Url handling in DotNetNuke for upcoming versions.

Here's what I have observed in the DNN front:

- There are new sections on the dotnetnuke.config file, with the comment '<!-- these elements are intended for future consolidation -->   These elements are regexFitlers, compression and RewriterRules.  My guess is that the siteurls.config might be headed for the scrap heap, and replaced with the rewriter rules section.

- The new <system.webserver> section in the web.config file contains all the mappings for the Http Handlers and Modules, and the modules have been marked with the IIS 7 'managedHandler' attribute.

One of the principle differences in IIS7 is that you can run the Http Modules in your ASP.NET application (for instance, the UrlRewriting HttpModule) in integrated mode, which means it doesn't have to go through an ISAPI extension.  This means, in rough terms, that you can have an extension-less Url (like the ones on this site, even though it is IIS6) without having to use a wildcard to map all requests through ASP.NET (which is how this site works).

Microsoft has set it up so that the new <system.webserver> section is an IIS7-specific section that overrides Http Module definitions in the <system.web> section.   But to do this, you need a separate config section to share the information between Http Modules. 

Adding all this up means that:

- DNN is getting ready for better IIS7 support in the area of Http Modules

- The dotnetnuke.config file with the <urlREwriting> section is where common rules are probably going to go

- This will allow mapping of extension-less Urls for DNN websites on IIS7 without having to modify the IIS configuration and push all Url's through ASP.NET

Hopefully this means that the dreaded days of /tabid/66/default.aspx will be banished forever!

Rest assured I'll stay on top of the developments and continue to offer a solution over and above the standard DNN Core Url Rewriting Module.  I'm looking forwards to the time when I can create a truly integrated, customisable solution for IIS7-specific installations.

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