Using a HTTP Module on a Virtual Directory in IIS - web-services

Question

I have a default website in my IIS where I have created one virtual directory "wsdls".
I would want to gather statistics on how many requests are triggered to my virtual directory. This would need a request interception at web server level and gather statistics. "HTTPModule" was one of the many solutions I have considered which is suitable for such scenario. Hence I have started building one.
For testing purpose, I wanted to create a HTTP Module and apply it on a particular extension files (say *.wsdl) and on every GET request of any .wsdl files in this virtual directory, I will want to redirect the application to "www.google.com". This would demonstrate a good example of how HTTP Module can be used and deployed on IIS.
HTTPModule which is written using Visual Studio is shown below,
namespace Handler.App_Code
{
public class HelloWorldModule : IHttpModule
{
public HelloWorldModule(){
}
public String ModuleName{
get { return "HelloWorldModule"; }
}
// In the Init function, register for HttpApplication
// events by adding your handlers.
public void Init(HttpApplication application){
application.BeginRequest +=
(new EventHandler(this.Application_BeginRequest));
application.EndRequest +=
(new EventHandler(this.Application_EndRequest));
}
private void Application_BeginRequest(Object source,
EventArgs e)
{
// Create HttpApplication and HttpContext objects to access
// request and response properties.
HttpApplication application = (HttpApplication)source;
HttpContext context = application.Context;
context.Response.Redirect("www.google.com");
}
private void Application_EndRequest(Object source, EventArgs e)
{
//Nothing to be done here
}
public void Dispose() { }
}
}
Now I have done a build of this project for x64 version and I am able to browser successfully the "dll" file. Now I have to register this dll in IIS and whenever I try to access the *.wsdl files, the requests automatically divert to "www.google.com". Here is the next step I have done,
Then I have enabled the Handler mappings as shown below,
I am assuming that is it!! Nothing more to be done. I should be able to intercept the requests for all HTTP requests which are of the form "*.wsdl". This means whenever I access any wsdl from the server, control should be going back to google(Because of the logic written in begin request ). But unfortunately, I failed in achieving it. What can be done here?

Answer 1

One thing I noticed is that when you are trying to redirect to an external URL use
http://
So change
context.Response.Redirect("www.google.com");
to
context.Response.Redirect("http://www.google.com", true);

Answer 2

I could solve the problem what I am facing and below are the observations which were missing in my understanding and which helped me in solving my problem:
Locating proper web.config file :
Every website in IIS will be having a web.config file to have control over the application.
Since I am working with "Default Website", this refers to the directory "C:\\inetpub\\wwwroot"
There will be a "web.config" file which would be present in this director. Please create it if not already present.
Modifying web.config :
Once you have identified the file which needs to be modified, just add necessary module configuration to web.config
In this case, we would want to add a Module to the default website, the probably setting would be shown below,
Adding contents to bin directory :
Now if you try to run the application, the IIS would not find any dll or executable to run and hence we would need to keep the executables at a particular location.
Create a director if not already present with the name "bin" at the root of the directory and place all the dlls which you would want this website to execute. Sample shown below,
General Points to be considered:
Proper access must be given for the folder which consists of dll.
It is ideally not suggested to modify the entire website. It would be ideal if one works only on their web application.
If web.config is not found, we can create one.
If bin is not present in the web root directory, we can create one.