ASP.NET url changes with 301 permanent redirect

I deployed a new ASP.NET MVC web site and needed to indicate to google and links from other sites that the url for most pages had permanently changed (rather than give them a 404 error).

Adding simple dummy .aspx files for these old pages with the following (non-code behind) script with a 301 HTTP response did the trick with little fuss:


<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="System.Web.UI.Page" %>
<script runat="server">
    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnLoad(e);
        // Tell old links to go to the new url:
        Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.mydomain.com/mynewurl");
    }
</script>

At some point I'll simply delete them once I think the important external links have been updated.

Install Elmah logging with ASP.NET MVC 3

Elmah is a great logging tool for ASP.NET and works fine with ASP.NAT MVC 3 with these quick steps:

1. Ensure NuGet is installed in Visual Studio 2010 (shows as Library Package Manager under Tools menu)

2. Open the Package Manager console and install Elmah by typing:
PM> Install-Package Elmah.MVC
This updates the web.config with sectionGroup, httpModules and httpHandlers and adds dll references.

3. Add to web.config:
  <elmah>
    <security allowRemoteAccess="no" />
    <errorLog type="Elmah.XmlFileErrorLog, Elmah" logPath="~/App_Data/Elmah" />
  </elmah>

4. To enable error logging when customErrors is "on" add the following to Global.asax: [see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/766610/how-to-get-elmah-to-work-with-asp-net-mvc-handleerror-attribute/5936867#5936867]

public class ElmahHandledErrorLoggerFilter : IExceptionFilter
{
    public void OnException (ExceptionContext context)
    {
        // Log only handled exceptions, because all other will be caught by ELMAH anyway.
        if (context.ExceptionHandled)
            Elmah.ErrorSignal.FromCurrentContext().Raise(context.Exception);
    }
}


And:

public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
        {
            filters.Add(new ElmahHandledErrorLoggerFilter());  // Required so that Elmah still loggs errors when customErrors mode="On"
            filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
        }

Done.