Use Case

You're looking to change your ThoughtFarmer url to something new or maybe you've already done so. The problem is your users have several browser bookmarks with the old url, which will not work anymore after the url change. They may also be used to typing the old url into the browser and need time to get used to using the new url. A way to solve these problems is to create a redirect site in IIS so when a user tries to access the site using the old url, they'll get redirected to the new one. You may consider keeping the redirect site up until users are used to the new url.

Solution

You'll need to set up an HTTP redirect website in IIS so the old url will redirect to the new one.

Before you start, please have these items in place:

• Keep your DNS entry for the old url
• If you're using https for the new site url, have the SSL certificate ready
• If you're using https for the old site url and you want https://oldSiteUrl.com to redirect to https://newSiteUrl.com, have the SSL certificate for the old url ready

1) Create a new folder your web server drive for your redirect site. Call it however you like (ex: SiteRedirect).

2) Open up IIS, right click the Sites folder > Add Website



3) Fill out these fields in the pop-up. 

• Site name: name of your redirect site (ex: SiteRedirect)
• Physical path: file path to the folder created in step 1
• Type: choose http/https and SSL certificate (if using https)
• Host name: old site url (exclude "http://"; and "https://")

4) Click on the redirect site you just created. Then double click the "Http Redirect" icon. If you don't see this icon, you may need to install it in the server roles and features, then close and re-open IIS (see "Setup" in this article:  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/iis/configuration/system.webserver/httpredirect/).

5) For the destination url field, enter your new url that you want the old url to redirect to. Include "http://"; or "https://";.


6) Click "Apply" on the right.

7) Make sure there's an http binding for the redirect site. The http binding should be for the old url. If you're using https, add an https binding too along with the SSL certificate.

Test it Out

Go to a specific content page using your old site url (ex: https://oldSiteUrl.com/content/123). It should redirect you to that same content page using the new url (ex: https://newSiteUrl.com/content/123).

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