Anders Hattestad
Dec 23, 2009
  10655
(0 votes)

QueryRewriteProvider replace query strings with paths

For fun I tried to make a url rewriter that could translate generic query parameters to be part of the path.

So if you had a page /newlist/  and used a query parameter to get to page 2 like this /newslist/?page=2 you would get that parameter as a path like /newslist/page_2/.

The code to replace all links is simple when you base your code on FriendlyUrlRewriteProvider.

From pageRef –> Url

#region from PageRef=>URL
protected override bool ConvertToExternalInternal(UrlBuilder url, object internalObject, System.Text.Encoding toEncoding)
{
    bool status=base.ConvertToExternalInternal(url, internalObject, toEncoding);
    if (status)
    {
        PageReference pageLink = internalObject as PageReference;
        if (pageLink != null)
        {
            List<string> done = new List<string>(); 
            foreach (string key in url.QueryCollection.AllKeys) 
            {
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(key) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(url.QueryCollection[key]))
                {
                    url.Path += key + "_" + url.QueryCollection[key] + "/";
                    done.Add(key);
                }
            }
            foreach (string d in done)
                url.QueryCollection.Remove(d);
           
        }
    }
    return status;
}
#endregion

This code will replace all links create on a page with the path of that page and the extra “path” from the query.

FromUrl=>Page

When  want to translate the extra path to a query parameter I need to do some small changes in ConvertToInternalInternal function. But the changes are unfortantly a bit inside the base function so I needed to copy the whole function. I also needed to make some adjustments to the helper function GetPageFromStartByPath and GetPageBySegments so I could find last know page from path and get the rest of the path so I could add them to the query collection.

protected static PageReference GetPageBySegments(PageReference rootPageRef, string[] segments, string languageCode, out PageReference lastGood, List<string> segmentsRemoved)
{
    lastGood = PageReference.EmptyReference;
    for (int i = 0; (i < segments.Length) && !PageReference.IsNullOrEmpty(rootPageRef); i++)
    {
        rootPageRef = UrlSegment.GetPageBySegment(rootPageRef, segments[i], languageCode, false);
        if (!PageReference.IsNullOrEmpty(rootPageRef))
            lastGood = rootPageRef;
        else
        {
            for (int x = i; x < segments.Length; x++)
                segmentsRemoved.Add(segments[x]);
        }
    }
    return rootPageRef;
}

Inside the ConvertToInternalIntranal I added this code

if (page == null)
{
    PageReference lastGood = PageReference.EmptyReference;
    List<string> segmentsRemoved = new List<string>();
    page = GetPageFromStartByPath(str, languageBranchAndPath,out lastGood, segmentsRemoved);

    if (page == null && !PageReference.IsNullOrEmpty(lastGood) && segmentsRemoved.Count>0)
    {
        page = DataFactory.Instance.GetPage(lastGood, LanguageSelector.Fallback(ContentLanguage.PreferredCulture.Name, true));
        foreach (string segment in segmentsRemoved)
        {

            string[] parts = segment.Split('_');
            queryCollection.Add(parts[0], HttpContext.Current.Server.UrlDecode( segment.Substring(parts[0].Length + 1)));
        }
    }
}

This code basically find the depths page based on the path, and take the rest of the path’s as query parameters. The code don’t use more cpu than the ordinary friendly rewriter.

 

The full code is here

Dec 23, 2009

Comments

Mårten Berg
Mårten Berg Sep 21, 2010 10:33 AM

Works great. Thanks for sharing.

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Optimizely CMS 13: What Actually Changed and Why It Matters

I had the privilege of attending a deep-dive session on CMS 13 this week, and after seeing the full roadmap laid out across these slides, I wanted ...

Aniket | May 12, 2026

Introducing the Optimizely MCP Server: AI That Speaks Commerce

MCP AI Commerce B2B Claude ChatGPT OpenAI Optimizely Insite Commerce Introducing the Optimizely MCP Server : AI That Speaks Commerce We've connecte...

Vaibhav | May 12, 2026

AEO, GEO and SEO with Epicweb AI Assistant in Optimizely CMS

Traditional SEO remains important, but content must now also be optimized for answer engines and generative AI. This article explains how the Epicw...

Luc Gosso (MVP) | May 11, 2026 |

Accelerating Optimizely CMS and Commerce upgrades with agentic AI (Part 1 of 2)

How Niteco's Upgrade Machine   uses orchestrated AI coding agents to deliver a buildable baseline and a running CMS, then hands over for...

Hung Le Hoang | May 11, 2026

Commerce 15 and CMS 13: Optimizely’s Next Step Toward AI-Powered, Graph-First Commerce

Optimizely is preparing to release Commerce 15 in mid-May 2026 , positioning this as a foundational shift—not just an upgrade. The direction is...

Augusto Davalos | May 7, 2026

The future of Content: Introducing Optimizely CMS 13

Optimizely In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital experience, the "monolithic vs. headless" debate is being replaced by a more sophisticated...

Aniket | May 6, 2026