ISAPI filters and other dynamic-to-static tools

[surftrip]

Has anyone tried LinkFreeze, ISAPI ReWrite, or any other tool that changes the appearance of dynamic urls to static?

I can't get them to work properly with my heavily database driven site using ASP.

they are supposed to change dynamic links as so:
-------------------------
www.domain.com?ID={3453}&COLOR={4534}=.asp

to

www.domain.com/ID/3453/color/4534.htm
-------------------------

this way, engines will think they are static pages and continue to 'deep link'.

any success with these tools anyone? i see my competitors using them on apache, but no successful IIS users.

thanks.

[pageoneresults]

Any success with these tools anyone? I see my competitors using them on apache, but no successful IIS users.
I believe there are plenty of us around who have had great success with using an ISAPI Filter in IIS. I personally use ISAPI Rewrite. I'm not 100% convinced that LinkFreeze is something I would want to use. Since we are already very familiar with the ISAPI Rewrite product, there is no need for us to utilize anything else.

We've used ISAPI Rewrite on sites that are capable of generating 400,000 pages and it performs without fail. We've also used it on sites with less than 200 pages. We include the httpd.ini file at the root level of all of our client sites. It is part of the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for us. We have full control over all URIs for each site hosted whether it is on a dedicated IP or a shared IP. One of the first things we include in the httpd.ini file is this...


RewriteCond Host: ^example\.com
RewriteRule (.*) http\://www\.example\.com$1 [I,RP]
That one line of code automatically 301 redirects all requests without www to www. This prevents issues with how the search engines handle the non www vs. the www.

Remember, you have to drop the global ini at the server root and then include one at the root of each site where required.

[Opie]

Best 70 bucks we have ever spent (per server that is)... Our site has over 10,000 dynamic pages with 1.5 million page views per week and its never missed a beat as well.

Opie

[seomike]

I can't get them to work properly with my heavily database driven site using ASP.

You have to change your <a href tags to out put a static looking url. Mods won't do it for you :)

Once you've done that then you can write the rules to translate the static url back to a dynamic query string using a rewrite rule.

FYI mod rewrites are best described as a translator. The rewrite happens on the server as it rewrites a static string back to its dynamic form. It doesn't "rewrite" your urls for you in the browsers address bar.

If you know how you want your urls to look just post an example of the static and the original dynamic string and I'll be more then happy to write the rules for you :)

[Opie]

Thats true... You do need to put some thought into how are are going to dynamicly create the proper anchors for your site. Once you do that you are golden.

Opie

[jasontnyc]

If you know how you want your urls to look just post an example of the static and the original dynamic string and I'll be more then happy to write the rules for you :)

Sorry to revive an old thread but I am actually looking for a starting point on writing rules. If you had a chance could you write a rule for the following?

Existing URL's
http://www.example.com/forum/forum.php?f=18
http://www.example.com/forum/topic.php?a=v&t=13&f=11
http://www.example.com/forum/topic.php?a=v&t=9&f=18

I am looking for them to display:

http://www.example.com/forum/topic/9.htm
http://www.example.com/forum/topic/9/18.htm ,etc.

Thanks

[seomike]

I would suggest fewer directories in your structure

combine forum/topic/ to /forum/

so they would look like

...com/forum/18.htm

RewriteRule ^/([0-9]+)\.htm /forum/forum.php?f=$1

for /forum/topic/9/18.htm

I'd do /forum/9-18.htm
RewiriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^forum/[0-9]+-[0-9]+\.htm [L]
RewriteRule ^/([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.htm /forum/forum.php?f=$2&t=$1 [L]


also some forums have display variables that are constants. you can just hard code those into the rewrite

RewriteRule ^/([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.htm /forum/forum.php?a=v&f=$2&t=$1 [L]



note: this syntax is the apache syntax and will have to be adjusted for the ISAPI or linkfreeze rewrite programs. I think they both have code validators on their sites. but this will get ya started since the syntax is very similar.

[jasontnyc]

Cheers...I think I can work it out from there.

I will post a follow up if I run into any issues

Thanks so much