[asp.net] Setting up redirect in web.config file

I'm trying to redirect some unfriendly urls with more descriptive ones. These urls end in .aspx?cid=3916 with the last digits being different for each category name page. I want it to instead redirect to Category/CategoryName/3916. I tried this in the web.config file:

<location path="Category.aspx?cid=3916">
<system.webServer>
  <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://www.site.com/Category/CategoryName/3916" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
</system.webServer>

but since it didn't end with just the extension, it didn't work. Is there an easy way to get this to work? I'm using IIS 7.5.

You probably want to look at something like URL Rewrite to rewrite URLs to more user friendly ones rather than using a simple httpRedirect. You could then make a rule like this:

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <rules>
      <rule name="Rewrite to Category">
        <match url="^Category/([_0-9a-z-]+)/([_0-9a-z-]+)" />
        <action type="Rewrite" url="category.aspx?cid={R:2}" />
      </rule>
    </rules>
  </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

1. Open web.config in the directory where the old pages reside

2. Then add code for the old location path and new destination as follows:

   <configuration>
     <location path="services.htm">
       <system.webServer>
         <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://domain.com/services" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
       </system.webServer>
     </location>
     <location path="products.htm">
       <system.webServer>
         <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://domain.com/products" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
       </system.webServer>
     </location>
   </configuration>
   

You may add as many location paths as necessary.

In case that you need to add the http redirect in many sites, you could use it as a c# console program:

   class Program
{
    static int Main(string[] args)
    {
        if (args.Length < 3)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Please enter an argument: for example insert-redirect ./web.config http://stackoverflow.com");
            return 1;
        }

        if (args.Length == 3)
        {
            if (args[0].ToLower() == "-insert-redirect")
            {
                var path = args[1];
                var value = args[2];

                if (InsertRedirect(path, value))
                    Console.WriteLine("Redirect added.");
                return 0;
            }
        }

        Console.WriteLine("Wrong parameters.");
        return 1;

    }

    static bool InsertRedirect(string path, string value)
    {
        try
        {
            XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();

            doc.Load(path);

            // This should find the appSettings node (should be only one):
            XmlNode nodeAppSettings = doc.SelectSingleNode("//system.webServer");

            var existNode = nodeAppSettings.SelectSingleNode("httpRedirect");
            if (existNode != null)
                return false;

            // Create new <add> node
            XmlNode nodeNewKey = doc.CreateElement("httpRedirect");

            XmlAttribute attributeEnable = doc.CreateAttribute("enabled");
            XmlAttribute attributeDestination = doc.CreateAttribute("destination");
            //XmlAttribute attributeResponseStatus = doc.CreateAttribute("httpResponseStatus");

            // Assign values to both - the key and the value attributes:

            attributeEnable.Value = "true";
            attributeDestination.Value = value;
            //attributeResponseStatus.Value = "Permanent";

            // Add both attributes to the newly created node:
            nodeNewKey.Attributes.Append(attributeEnable);
            nodeNewKey.Attributes.Append(attributeDestination);
            //nodeNewKey.Attributes.Append(attributeResponseStatus);

            // Add the node under the 
            nodeAppSettings.AppendChild(nodeNewKey);
            doc.Save(path);

            return true;
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Exception adding redirect: {e.Message}");
            return false;
        }
    }
}