Azure virtual paths for localization - localization

I would like to provide localization for my website in Azure.
I went with a classic aspx website since localization is supported by classic asp out-of-the-box and I have only a few pages. I want to keep it simple so MVC might be overkill.
I plan to register only 1 Azure web role for the site (foo.com) but would like virtual paths for localization, eg. foo.com/de-de, etc.
Azure does not allow virtual folders like IIS, so I think I can use Request.Path and do some jugglery to detect the virtual (localized) path.
Can you think of any other clean method? Maybe some web.config tags?
Thanks

Maybe you can do something with ASP.NET routing?

yes, sorry I did not see your response earlier and that's exactly what I used.
I was not aware that we can use routing in web forms:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc668177.aspx
I defined my localization pattern in the RegisterRoutes, like:
routes.MapPageRoute("loc",
"{language}-{country}/{action}",
"~/default.aspx", true)
Rather than page load, I use the InitializeCulture() event and set the thread culture based on the values as derived from the route spec., e.g. string lang = Page.RouteData.Values["lang"].ToString();
Remember to check for nulls, etc.
Think of putting this in a base Page class of yours.

Related

How can I generate links to other MVC applications?

I've created three related ASP.NET MVC web-applications that sit in IIS like so:
root
|-Emailing
|-InternalManagement
Where the root site is customer facing.
The three sites have different security requirements and I wanted to be able to modify one application with less worry about breaking the other two.
However both the root and the internal management site need to have links to the emailing site.
I'm using T4MVC.
Now I've separated the T4MVC helpers for each project by modifying the HelpersPrefix, and root and InternalManagement reference emailing so for example I can do something like:
Url.Action(MVCEmailing.CustomerDocuments.Index())
Which almost works - except the actual URL produced will be:
For the root application:
http://mydomain.com/CustomerDocuments/Index
for the internal management application:
http://mydomain.com/internalManagement/CustomerDocuments/Index
What I need in both cases is for the URL produced to look like so:
http://mydomain.com/emailing/CustomerDocuments/Index
What's the best way to go about doing this?
Copying from the T4MVC doc:
One key concept to understand about T4MVC is that it is just a thin
layer over MVC. e.g. while it provides strong typing, in the end it's
just putting values in a dictionary, and using standard MVC to
generate the routes.
One thing I often suggest when people have questions is to first
figure out how they would do things without T4MVC. If you have no idea
how it would work, or think it may not be possible at all, then you
are probably expecting too much of T4MVC! Generally, it will not do
anything that MVC does not support.
In your case here, I'm not convinced that you could do this with plain MVC, because each of the application does not have knowledge of the other applications' routes. And generally, I don't think that MVC routing can ever general links that go outside of the current app.

asp.net mvc how to create subdomain url

I am working on site which is scattered in multiple subdomains. From the main site I have to create url which points to sudomains. How can I do this.
for example, my main site is www.mysite.com
I need to create a url pointing to blog.mysite.com/userId/Name which will point to HomeController and Index method witch userId and name.
Also, how should I handle the urls on local machine as well on the production machine.
Help will be appreciated
updating my question here.
What does
#Html.ActionLink("MyLink","Index","Profile","","www.test.com",null,null,null)
do.
It creates a link, but with port number in it. If there is anyway I can avoid it.
Regards
Parminder
As your sub domains will host their own applications with controller and actions I'd recommend to use the good old HTML hyperlink to create that link:
Your Blog
Why: Because you do not want to couple your disjoint applications and ASP.NET MVC does not have a clue (and should not have a clue) about the routes used in some other application. For constructing the link you can add an extension method to HtmlHelper to avoid typos and URL path encoding quirks.
Regarding port number-- you really need to set up a virtual directory in IIS to avoid it. And if you're goal is to have separate sites-- you're going to have to set up virtual directories for all the subsites as well. I am wondering if you really need to set up completely separate sites? How extensive will the subsites be? Will there be any connection between the "root" site and the "sub sites".
Out of curiosity--- how many subsites? If you can do it without revealing too much-- what is the end goal here?
If you are looking for string typed items you might want to use the razor #helper syntax.
You could create #helper.blogLink("Title", "Action", "Controller") that creates a link to the subdomain.
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/05/12/asp-net-mvc-3-and-the-helper-syntax-within-razor.aspx

Flatpages equivalent for ASP.Net MVC

Django has the Flatpages app, which lets site admins change content on specific pages without changing code. Flatpage content i stored in the database, sort of like in a CMS. Flatpages are typically used for about-pages and such.
Are there any good equivalents for ASP.Net MVC? I.e., a convenient way to manage page-content persisted to a database.
No.
Django seems closer to a CMS then "ASP.NET MVC" which is both a framework and just a general design pattern.
Have a look at http://http://cmsmvc.codeplex.com, it allows you to create pages, and manage content on the page.
The solution is still in early stages, but it could help you out.

Asp.Net MVC Identify Site via Url

I have an application that will support multiple sites. The site will be determined based on the url.
For example
http://myapp/site/abc123/...
and
http://myapp/site/xyz123/...
The site code will drive a lot of the functionality for example themes, available modules, etc...
Questions:
1-)I need to validate the site code is valid and if it isn't, it should direct the user to an info page. I was looking at using IRouteConstraint, is this appropriate? Are there other/better options?
2-)Any gotchas with this approach (using url to identify site)? Is there are better approach?
Solution
I ended up creating a Custom ActionFilter and check the sitecode in the OnActionExecuting event. That seems to work well and fit better than the IRouteConstraint.
The system I have implemented uses Urls to identify unique page content within a single site and the routing process is pretty straightforward. That being said, you may want to consider making use of Areas in your MVC application. With Areas you can have multiple sections to your website that all have their own MVC structure which can run semi-independently.
Essentially, you will have one base routing definition that lays out some defaults and then the rest of the "sites" will define their own routes pointing to controllers and views in a separate location. It's pretty easy to set up, you'll just need to make sure you're using version 2.0 of ASP.NET MVC. Here's a decent looking tutorial on ASP.NET MVC Areas and Routes. In the current model which MVC 2.0 supports you'll have a single Web project for each area, but that is not necessarily a requirement. Phil Haacked has some code for ASP.NET MVC Single Project Areas if you're looking for another example of the technique, although you, personally, will probably benefit more from the first article.
So long as you define good routes that have clear and measurable constraints, you shouldn't have too much trouble laying out the website you've described.
I ended up creating a Custom ActionFilter and check the sitecode in the OnActionExecuting event. That seems to work well and fit better than the IRouteConstraint.

Nested Applications with ASP.NET MVC

I'm currently working on an asp.net-mvc content management system. It would be incredibly useful to be able to deploy nested applications e.g. /shop to have a separate app inside. Or even another instance of the cms.
I've found some information around talking about limiting the inheritance of the web.config but I've no idea how this maps to an MVC application. I'm hoping as its essentially the same stack it will just run. Nothing is ever that easy though.
If anyone has any experience doing this I would be really grateful. The idea of one big application to rule them all is not at all nice.
Si.
To be honest you biggest hurdle is going to be creating the routes and making sure they don't interfere with routes already in the system. After you get that working the rest is easy as pie.
The first thing you will need is an HttpModule that will be inserted in to the web.config under the . This module will be used to register and custom ViewEngines or Routes that you want to register. You do this in the same way that you do in the Global.asax but instead of putting them in the Application_Start you put them in the static constructor of the HttpModule. This is so they are only loaded once like Application_Start.
By do the above you will have created a module that is easily transportable and doesn't require the implimentor to modify their Global.asax code to get your stuff to work.
The second thing you probably want to do is create a custom configuration in the web.config to set stuff like the root path of your application. This will be prepended on to the route when you are setting it up in the HttpModule. Also you can use this to store customization information that is not appropriate for the database.
Last but not necessary is that you may want to create a custom ViewEngine that knowns and understands your folder structure. This is only necessary if you want to store the views in a different path than the default views, in order to minimize conflicts.
Check out the Grouping Controllers with ASP.NET MVC from Phil Haack.
Hope it helps,
Bruno Figueiredo
I've gone down this road before (with /blog), but found it to be doable but complicated and difficult to maintain. Instead I ended up using subdomains:
www.example.com
shop.example.com
blog.example.com
These are much easier to maintain because you can just have them work as separate websites in IIS. And, of course, you can always redirect www.example.com/shop to shop.example.com.

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