Hello,
I don't know if this can be don in ASP.
I have the dynamic URL:
http://w w w.xxxxxx.com/catalog/Category.asp?idCategory=2
converted to the static URL:
http://w w w.xxxxxx.com/catalog/Category.html
What I want is:
In the static URL apear not the '2' (which is idcategory) but the name for that id which would be for example t-shirts.
What do I have to do to acomplish this in ASP?
Many thanks.

Not much, actually. You just need a host that offers custom 404 error pages (or your own server) and a few hours to play with this tutorial and customize it to your own specs (that's not my site either...so no link droppin' here! 4 Guys from Rolla kicks ***.)

However be very aware that a response.redirect will default to a 302 response NOT a 301

Thanks forthe repplies.

I think that playing with 404 Error pages to do this will not be liked by robots (Google and so..). Is there other way to do this without touching the error pages? (Always speaking ASP)

I think that playing with 404 Error pages to do this will not be liked by robots (Google and so..).

Utter rubbish, user agents have NO KNOWLEDGE of how it's done.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:...GB217&filter=0
http://uk.search.yahoo.com/siteexplo...&fr2=seo-rd-se
http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx...MSNH&mkt=en-gb

Adult products BTW, The site runs TOTALLY on 5 main scripts + includes plus a custom 404 script and a custom 500 script

test it in WebBug, see if you can tell me which pages are not handled by the 404 script.

The custom error page is just a script like any other, send the correct HTTP responses to UAs and it makes NO difference to their handling of the script.

The site is just lacking promotion currently, (Not Guilty BTW)

Here's another example:

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...dding+packages

The #1/#1a result (my client's) is actually a custom 404 page. Search engines can't tell unless they receive a 404 status code, which a custom 404 page does not return by default. You can tell it to return a 404 status code, but by default it will think the page is a 200 page (normal, OK page).

By the way, one of the things I was referring to in that script was that Response.Redirect portion. I'll leave that to your discovery, though, jmz82...gotta learn some stuff on your own.

Very interesting.

What practical diferences exist between using the 404 method and the ISAPI filter? Any advantage? (speed, SEO, easier to implement...)

I can see that with the 404 method it is not necesary to do anything on the server so this is a plus.

ISAPI filters have to be installed, so in a shared environment may not be possible.

The major disadvantage to a custom 404 is that it doesn't send the correct URL to a raw log; therefore, the most commonly viewed page in a web stats program is often 404.asp. I've messed with one ISAPI filter and from what I've seen, it handles this issue much more accurately.

The downside, as Hirst said, is that ISAPI filters have to be installed where 404 pages only have to be configured.

So with 404.asp redirect, is it imposible to know with pages your visitors are seeing?
Thanks for all your comments.

It's not impossible, since the URL is sent to the 404 page in the form of a querystring. It's just impossible to get it to report in any stats program that relies on raw logs.

Hi, we've used ISAPI Rewrite by Helicon with much success. If you have the option to use an ISAPI filter (ie: you're not on a shared server) I would suggest it. Adding new rewrite rules is extremely easy (modifying rules in an httpd.ini file) and as ADAM states, you'll have much nicer logs for it.

We've also used the custom 404 error page method before (Note: we do a Server.Execute in our 404 custom error pages, not a Response.Redirect. But if you go this route, you have to parse the query string differently). If you're going to use client-side web stats (ie: Google Analytics) you won't have to worry about the mess that this does to your web logs. Or, if you can pre-process your web logs using some kind of search and replace utility, you may be able to salvage the logs.

thank for sharing