URL rewritting

A URL Rewriting

This article describes a complete solution for URL rewriting in ASP.NET 2.0. The solution uses regular expressions to specify rewriting rules and resolves possible difficulties with postback from pages accessed via virtual URLs.

Why should we use URL rewriting?

The two main reasons to incorporate URL rewriting capabilities into your ASP.NET applications are increased usability and easy to maintain

(1)increased usability

It is well-known that users of web applications prefer short, neat URLs to monstrous addresses packed with difficult to comprehend query string parameters. From time to time, being able to remember and type in a concise URL is less time-consuming than adding the page to a browser's favorites only to access later. Again, when access to a browser's favorites is unavailable, it can be more convenient to type in the URL of a page on the browser address bar, without having to remember a few keywords and type them into a search engine in order to find the page.
Compare the following two addresses and decide which one you like more:
(1) http://www.zombie.com/Blogs/lastest.aspx?yy=2008&mm=08&dd=20

(2) http://www. Zombie.com/Blogs/2008/08/20/
As we can see the first url is little descriptive and it is useless to remember for end user who is browsing your site, so second one is defined, it can be clearly seen that second one is much better to read and useable.

(2)Easy to maintain

It is very common scenario in web world that changes are taken place each and every day in our developer life, say we have page called contactus.aspx in contact folder and tos.aspx in terms folder but later we decide to move both the pages on static Content folder ,now if any one has book marked our page will get an error stating that page is not there(As we have moved it), so for that purpose also this rewriting is useful, We can make changes in our config file and maintain it very easily, By this we can see clear separation between physical structure and logical structure of stored files.

URL mapping from web.config

ASP.NET 2.0 provides an out-of-the-box solution for mapping static URLs within a web application. It is possible to map old URLs to new ones in web.config without writing any lines of code. To use URL mapping, just create a new urlMappings section within the System.web section of your web.config file and add the required mappings (the path ~/ points to the root directory of the web application):




Thus, if a user types http://www.zombie.com/contact/contact.aspx, he can then see the page located at http://www.zombie.com/staci/contact.aspx.

ZOMBIE:NOTE: This is solution is good where there are small amount of pages moved to directories, but what if there are plenty of pages that have been moved away here and there??? So content for the same is coming soon stay tuned…..

Top 7 ways to speed up download of your page.

Why is download speed so important?
As we all know nobody wants to wait everybody in this word wants to get everything in flash…so tell me Do you like to wait for pages to download? i do not think so,and if is it so…just go through following zombie steps…..

1. Design your pages with Stylesheet(CSS), not tables

CSS downloads faster than tables because:
Browsers read through tables twice before displaying their contents, once to work out their structure and once to determine their content
Tables appear on the screen all in one go - no part of the table will appear until the entire table is downloaded.
CSS generally requires less code than tables
All code to do with the layout can be placed in an external CSS document, which will be called up just once and then cached (stored) on the user's computer; table layout, stored in each HTML document, must be loaded up each time a new page downloads
With CSS you can control the order items download on to the screen - make the content appear before slow-loading images and your site users will definitely appreciate it …(I dnt abt about others..but I really do.)

2. Don't use images where you only wants to display text

This is where CSS comes into the picture.There is no need to use image where u want only text just use CSS and feel the power. Have a look at this code:

3. Use shorthand CSS properties

Font
Use:
Font: 1em/1.5e, bold italic serif
...instead of
font-size:1em;
line-height:1.5em
font-weight:bold;…etc.
Border
Use:
Border:1px solid #000000;
...instead of
border-width:1px;
border-color:#000;
border-style:solid;
Same things can be applied for background, margin, padding…..

4. Minimise white space and comment tags

Every single letter or space in your HTML code takes up one byte(oh my goshhhhhhhh). It doesn't matter but when considered along with all the spaces it may go higher than expected.

5. Use relative calls rather than absolutes

Try to avoid absolute call ups as they take up more space. An example of an absolute call up is: . Much better would be . But what if some files are in different folders to other ones? Use these shorthand properties:
- Calls up http://www.URL.com
- Calls up http://www.URL.com/filename.html
- Calls up http://www.URL.com/directory/filename.html
- Calls up index.html within that directory
- Calls up index.html one directory above
- Calls up filename.html one directory above
- Calls up index.html two directories above

6. Put CSS and JavaScript into external documents

To place CSS in an external document use:

To place JavaScript in an external document use:

Any external file is called up just once and then cached (stored) on the user's computer. Instead of repeating JavaScript or CSS over and over again in HTML files, just write it out once in an external document.

7. Use / at the end of all links to directory

Don't do this:
http://www.myBlog.com/zombie
Do this instead:
http://www.myBlog.com/zombie
Why? If there's no slash at the end of the URL the server doesn't know if the link is pointing to a file or to a directory. By including the slash the server instantly knows that the URL is pointing to a directory and doesn't need to spend any time trying to work it out…isn’t it amazing…....
I hope this will help u people…as it helped me also…so happy CSSingggggggggg….