How can I add an IIS 8 URL rewrite using appcmd?

Question

I would like to automate the creation of some rewrite rules on my servers. Unfortunately it seems that all documentation to do this is out of date. This is the closest I could find on SO but unfortunately the syntax is no longer valid; appcmd complains about the given section not existing. I have figured out how to address the global rules collection but I am unable to set any of the given properties.

Here is the XML fragment I would like to insert:

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <globalRules>
      <rule name="Strip WWW" enabled="true" stopProcessing="true">
        <match url="^(.*)$" />
        <conditions>
          <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^www\.myapp\.com$" />
        </conditions>
        <serverVariables>
        </serverVariables>
        <action type="Redirect" url="http://myapp.com{PATH_INFO}" />
      </rule>
    </globalRules>
  </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

Here's how I create the rule element. This works correctly:

appcmd set config -section:globalRules /+"[name='Strip WWW',enabled='true',stopProcessing='true']" /commit:apphost

I now want to create the Match URL element, and according to the above linked SO question I tried to guess the syntax. However, this doesn't seem to work:

appcmd set config -section:globalRules/rule.[name="Strip WWW"] /match.url:"(.*)" /commit:apphost

This error message is shown:

ERROR ( message:Unknown config section "globalRules/rule.[name=Strip WWW]". Replace with ? for help. )

My guess is that I'm just not able to specify the configuration section completely - unless that error message is totally inaccurate that is. I have also tried some other attempts at guessing the syntax for the section:

globalRules/rule.[name=Strip WWW]
globalRules/rule[name=Strip WWW]
globalRules/rule[@name=Strip WWW]

I'm not sure what this selection scheme is but it doesn't seem to be xpath. If I could find out what it was called I might be able to guess the correct syntax.

Boklucius · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-10 13:22:16Z

2

Try using this syntax:

appcmd set config -section:globalRules /"[name='Strip WWW']".match.url:"(*.)" /commit:apphost

I've found that the best way to get the correct syntax is going in IIS, Configuration Editor, change something and then go to Generate Script

answered Mar 10, 2015 at 13:22

Boklucius

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Steve Rukuts · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-06 12:05:57Z

I gave up on trying to do it with appcmd and ended up doing it with Powershell instead. All I could find on the internet was people bemoaning appcmd's lack of documentation for this; my guess is that this has been dropped in favour of the newer, shinier Powershell module.

I couldn't find any reliable documentation on how to do this so I wrote my own script to do this. Here's how you do it in a fairly idempotent style, suitable for automation with PS DSC or chef or whatever else you want to use:

$name = "Strip WWW";
$siteName = "Default Web Site";
$url = "^(.*)$";
$redirectAction = "http://myapp.com{PATH_INFO}";
$hostPattern = "^www\.myapp\.com$";

$sitePath = "IIS:\Sites\$siteName";
$filterXpath = "/system.webserver/rewrite/rules/rule[@name='$name']";

$filter = $(Get-WebConfiguration -PSPath $sitePath -Filter $filterXpath);

if ($filter -eq $null)
{
    Add-WebConfigurationProperty -PSpath $sitePath -filter '/system.webserver/rewrite/rules' -name . -value @{name=$name; stopProcessing='True'};
    $filter = $(Get-WebConfiguration -PSPath $sitePath -Filter $filterXpath);
}

if ($filter.match.url -ne $url)
{
    Set-WebConfigurationProperty -PSPath $sitePath -filter "$filterXpath/match" -name "url" -value $url;
}

if ($filter.action.url -ne $redirectAction)
{
    Set-WebConfigurationProperty -PSPath $sitePath -filter "$filterXpath/action" -name . -value @{url=$redirectAction; type="Redirect";};
}

if ($filter.conditions.collection.count -eq 0)
{
    Add-WebConfigurationProperty -PSpath $sitePath -filter "$filterXpath/conditions" -name . -value @{input="{HTTP_HOST}"; pattern=$hostPattern};
}
else
{
    $condition = $filter.conditions.collection[0];

    if ($condition.pattern -ne $hostPattern)
    {
        Set-WebConfigurationProperty -PSPath $sitePath -filter "$filterXpath/conditions/add[1]" -name "." -value @{pattern=$hostPattern;};
    }
}

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