Wanting to rewrite database driven URLs...it is much work?

[thomasr]

I am helping to optimize a website for a friend. It is built in asp which I know nothing about. I want the urls to be changed to something more SEO friendly. So I have 2 questions

1) the programmer is telling me that the url below is database driven and cannot be changed. or its too much work and better to create a whole new page. I simply want to change

http://www.valuecruises.net/destination_introduction.aspx?dest=39
to new url
http://www.valuecruises.net/asia/china/

is it really that tough for a database driven url?

2) I want pages ending in ugly .aspx to end with a forward slash (/) how hard it that? for example

http://www.valuecruises.net/cruises_introduction.aspx
to
http://www.valuecruises.net/cruise-introduction/

are they being lazy or are these changes alot of work?

[tkowebworks]

I am having this same sort of issue and I'm not sure what to do.
I hope you find the answer

[siteguru]

.aspx means ASP.NET. This is the Classic ASP forum.

What you need is URLRewrite - I don't know if this is supported in .NET.

Edit:

Thread moved to .NET - Mittineague

[imaginekitty]

... What you need is URLRewrite - ...

What year is this? How about System.Web.Routing instead? Works nicer in MVC but you can use it without.

[siteguru]

I know the sum total of zilch about .NET, but at least my reply would give them something to search against - so not entirely useless. :P

(Your reply was obviously more targeted. )

[tkowebworks]

I saw something on the Microsoft site that says: URL Rewriting in ASP.NET
"URL rewriting can be implemented either with ISAPI filters at the IIS Web server level, or with either HTTP modules or HTTP handlers at the ASP.NET
level. There are, however, numerous third-party ISAPI filters"
I don't know enough about databases so I cant find what is best.

Is the System.Web.Routing a better option?

[imaginekitty]

I know the sum total of zilch about .NET, but at least my reply would give them something to search against - so not entirely useless. :P

(Your reply was obviously more targeted. )

Cheers.

... Is the System.Web.Routing a better option?

I like it. YMMV.

[imaginekitty]

If you're going to use MVC your life will be easier. Any of the MVC tutorials will get you moving with Routing. Using ASP.NET it gets a tiny bit more complicated and I had some issues using routing and membership provider in IIS 7+. I was learning MVC anyway so I never did bother to fix the issues.

[wwb_99]

Routing, not rewriting is definitely the way to go here.

We usually build objects with two unique keys. First is the good old fasioned immutable primary key -- typically an integer or a guid depending on requirements. Second ID is a mutable, human editable one for the URL slug. Load things on the public facing side by url slug, problem solved.

[imaginekitty]

Routing, not rewriting is definitely the way to go here.

Most assuredly.

We usually build objects with two unique keys. First is the good old fasioned immutable primary key -- typically an integer or a guid depending on requirements. Second ID is a mutable, human editable one for the URL slug. Load things on the public facing side by url slug, problem solved.

I've considered using a slug but I keep things extremely simple. Instead of using a slug, I use the page title with punctuation removed and spaces changed to dashes. Upon submission of a new page or article I validate against existing titles to ensure it doesn't already exist.