Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2007)

A rewrite engine also known as URL rewriting, is software which modifies the URLs appearance, for example:

http://example.com/wiki/index.php?title=Page_title

is changed to:

http://example.com/Page_title

The benefits of a rewrite engine are^[1]:

• Making website URLs more user and search engine friendly
• Preventing undesired "inline linking"
• Not exposing the inner workings of a web site's address to visitors

Java and Ruby on Rails

In Java, the term "URL rewriting" sometimes describes a Web Application Server adding a session id to a URL when cookies are not supported (e.g. "index.jsp" is rewritten to "index.jsp;jsessionid=xyc" when the links are drawn in an HTML page).

Ruby on Rails has built-in URL rewriting via Routes.^[2]

See also

• Clean URL
• Apache HTTP Server
• Internet Information Server
• Content negotiation
• HTTP
• .htaccess

Notes

External links

Apache

• Apache's mod_rewrite: a detailed discussion of mod_rewrite's many features.
• Additional Apache URL rewriting guide: more detailed discussion of mod_rewrite
• Using mod_rewrite in a holistic way
• mod_rewrite, a beginner's guide (with examples): a guide to get you started using mod_rewrite.
• Apache mod rewrite tutorials and regular expression lessons: Mod rewrite instruction with Regular Expression syntax lessons, a how to tutorial from beginner to advanced
• Rewrite URLs with mod_rewrite: a tutorial for redirecting URLs.
• The Indie Publisher's mod_rewrite Recipe Book: a collection of mod_rewrite recipes especially for independent publishers.
• URL Rewriting Tool
• Quick introduction to mod_rewrite and when it is useful.
• Useful url rewriting examples 5 common and useful url rewriting examples..

IIS

• Bill Staples of Microsoft announces a new URL Rewrite Module for IIS7 which includes the ability to import Apache mod_rewrite rules
• How to redirect URLs to different Web sites Microsoft Knowledgebase article on built-in URL rewriting
• Scott Guthrie of Microsoft describes various techniques for URL rewriting in .NET

Rewrite engines

Apache Software Foundation's Apache HTTP server

• mod_rewrite Apache module described as "the Swiss Army knife of URL manipulation".^{citation needed}
• mod_alias Simpler Apache module allow for manipulation and control of URLs as requests arrive at the server..

Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS)

• URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 from Microsoft
• IIS Mod-Rewrite from Micronovae
• IISRewrite from Qwerksoft
• ISAPI_Rewrite from Helicon Tech
• URL Replacer from Motobit
• Ionic's ISAPI Rewrite Filter (IIRF) free and open source, written in C, requires no .NET, works with ASP.NET PHP Ruby JSP CFML etc; IIS5/6/7.
• .NET URL Rewriter and Reverse Proxy Free professional URL rewriting and reverse proxy package. Supports .NET 2.0, 3.5, IIS 6, IIS 7.
• VirtualUrl.NET Professional URL rewriting package.
• UrlRewriter.NET Free, open-source package. Supports .NET 1.1 and 2.0.
• URLRewriting.NET, free and open source supports, ASP.NET 2.0
• VirtualUrl.NET for ASP.NET 2 Professional URL rewriting package.

Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Servlet container servers (such as Apache Tomcat, Resin, Orion etc):

• HttpRedirectFilter (open source)
• UrlRewriteFilter (open source - BSD) - allows you to rewrite URLs before they get to your Sea