Create ColdFusion SEO Friendly URLS Using IIS URL Rewrite

ColdFusion Programmers Can Create SEO Friendly URLS using URL Rewrite

ColdFusion programmers can harness the power of SEO friendly URLS in their applications by utilizing the URL Rewrite module which is built into IIS 7+ (or .htaccess on Linux boxes.) 

First of all, by Search Engine Friendly, I am referring to a URL that looks something like this.

http://www.domain.com/news/123/ford-trucks-for-sale/

Without URL Rewrite, ColdFusion programmers would normally have to physically create those directories on the server in order to process that URL.

Like this...

With a simple URL Rewrite Rule, you can process that URL very easily. The Rewrite Rule processes the URL so that ColdFusion can understand it.

This SEO friendly URL...

http://www.domain.com/news/123/ford-trucks-for-sale/

becomes...

http://www.domain.com/news/index.cfm?id=123&title=ford-trucks-for-sale

… so ColdFusion can understand it.

Pretty awesome right? Here’s how you do it.

1. Create a new URL Rewrite Rule in IIS. 

2. Create a Blank Rule.

3. Your rule should look something like this...
   1. Pattern:  ^news/([0-9]+)/([_0-9a-z-]+)
   2. Rewrite URL:  /news/index.cfm?id={R:1}&title={R:2}

What this actually does is creates a new rule in your web.config file that looks like this...

Let me know if this article was helpful. 

Bob Bell
Certified Senior ColdFusion Developer since 1997

http://www.fullblownwebdesign.com