URL dilemma 2

[ncar35b]

Hi! I need to create about 300 unique subdirectories on a website that will redirect to specific doctor websites. For example:

http://www.site.com/drjones

(this would redirect to a unique site)

http://www.site.com/drsmith

(this would redirect to a unique site)

http://www.site.com/drlee

(this would redirect to a unique site)

Does anyone have a way I could create something server side in ASP to possibly parse the URL and maybe hit a database that says '/drsmith redirects to

http://www.drsmith.com'.

I'd like to avoid hardcoding 300 directories and 300 redirect files. I really just need someone to point me in the right direction. Thanks for your thoughts!!

NOTE: I have no freedom to change that URL structure, unfortunately.

 

[Genimuse]

A custom 404 page will do the trick. Don't create any of the directories, and on your custom 404 page simply examine the Request.Servervariables("PATH_INFO") to determine what information to serve on your redirect, adding the "directory" to the querystring. If there's no match simply serve the 404.

 

[Genimuse]

(Sorry, to clarify, you don't need to redirect, you can just serve the info if you want to.)

 

[ncar35b]

that's a fantastic idea, didn't think of that!! Thanks Genimuse!

 

[vbkris]

Genimuse:
situation: Online
in this case will the Service Provider allow me to change the custome_404 page? even if i change wont it affect other sites hosted on the web???

Known is handfull, Unknown is worldfull

 

[ncar35b]

as long as there is a unique instance of a web server set up for each site hosted, you can have a custom 404 page without affecting other sites hosted.

 

[vbkris]

ur statement seems to have a condition, generally how is it???

Known is handfull, Unknown is worldfull

 

[ncar35b]

vbkris, I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

Also, I have a new dilemma. The Request.Servervariables("PATH_INFO") just gives me the location of the 404 error page, not the refering page. And when I try HTTP_REFERER, the server isn't showing me the refering URL (the string is empty). Any thoughts?

 

[FesterSXS]

Have you checked the querystring of the 404 page? You should have something like this...

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.spiraxsarco.com/include/error.asp?404;[/URL][b][URL unfurl="true"]http://www.spiraxsarco.com/dsadsa.asp[/URL][/b]

You should be able some simple string manipulation to extract the page request that caused the 404

Tony
________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.SpiraxSarco.com

 

[ncar35b]

Thanks Tony, if I just do a generic request.querystring, I can get the referer and parse that URL!

 

[FesterSXS]

glad to help - thanks for the star

Tony
________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.SpiraxSarco.com

 

[Genimuse]

Oops, sorry, forgot you need to get it out of the querystring. I haven't set one of these up in a while. Glad it's working.

This is some code I wrote once to pull out potential keywords... in my case it was so that people could type "

http://www.thesite.com/munchkins"

to get to the munchkins page. I wrote it quite a while ago, so it might be inefficient. Might be sweet, too.

Dim Path
Path = Request.ServerVariables("QUERY_STRING")
Dim oRegExp
Set oRegExp = New RegExp
oRegExp.Global = False
oRegExp.Pattern = "^[^/]+//[^/]+"
Path = oRegExp.Replace(Path, "")
Set oRegExp = Nothing
If InStr(1, Path, "/") > 0 Then
	If InStr(2, Path, "/") > 0 Then
		Path = Right(Path, Len(Path) - 1)
		Path = Left(Path, InStr(1, Path, "/") - 1)
	Else
		Path = Right(Path, Len(Path) - 1)
	End If
End If

Then the variable "Path" contained the potential "keyword," and I checked the db for a match.

Glad to help.