re-direct a URL but maintain the same URL in browser

There are two ways to change the URL. The first is issuing a redirect to the client that tells the browser to make a new request to the new URL. This will update the browser's address bar with the new URL which isn't what you want.

The other option is to change the requested URI in the iRule before it's sent to the backend web server. This can be done with the HTTP::uri command. Something like this should do what you want

when HTTP_REQUEST {
  if { [HTTP::uri] eq "/eng/test.html" } {
    HTTP::uri "/global/eng/test.html"
  }
}

The backend server will think the request came in for "/global/eng/test.html" when it really came in as "/eng/test.html".

Hope this helps...

-Joe

thanks joe.

 

 

Its working.

 

One intresting thing i noticed is

 

 

This works as expected, re-directs and browser URL does not change.

 

HTTP::uri "/global[HTTP::uri]"

 

use pool serverA_pool

 

 

However, if i get the path like below ,

 

 

set myPath [URI::path [HTTP::uri]]

 

HTTP::uri "/ocomglobal$myPath"

 

use pool serverA_pool

 

 

this does not work, it re-directs but changes the browser URL.

 

 

Just an observation, not sure what the explanation might be.

 

 

thanks again.

 

 

Sorry Joe,

 

 

stuck on another requirement,

 

 

Above is working if a use types in the entire URL, but if a user types in just the folder path like

 

http://serverA.com/eng

 

Below is my scenario.

 

 

If a user enter http://serverA.com/eng or http://serverA.com/eng/

 

 

It currently redirects as http://serverA.com/global/eng/index.html

 

 

I need to re-direct but have the browser display without global in the URL, as below

 

 

http://serverA.com/eng/index.html

 

 

Is this possible?

 

 

appreciate your help.

 

 

 

That's because Joes example doesn't do a redirect. It simply changes the URL that the backend sees. What you're doing is the same. But if the user types in a URL that then gets mapped to a DIRECTORY on the backend the backend WILL send a redirect. And the URL will of course change on the browser.

 

 

What you need to do is put a lot more intelligence in your iRule. Either maintain a list of valid documents that can be accessed without a redirect (And translate to a document instead of a directory), or have a much more complex iRule that intercepts the redirect, and then re-issues the request with the redirected document instead of the directory directly from the F5 without sending the redirect to the browser.

 

 

H

Hi Puli,

You can then switch fF statement to a switch statement.

when HTTP_REQUEST {
   switch [HTTP::uri] {
   "/eng" - 
   "/eng/" { 
     HTTP::uri "/eng/index.html" 
              pool serverB_pool
               }
   "/eng/test.html" { 
      "HTTP::uri "/global/eng/test.html" 
             pool serverA_pool
              }
   }
}

I hope this helps

Bhattman

Thanks Bhattman,

 

 

how i use it for all urls.

 

I'll have many URL and all need to to have global removed from the URL.

 

How Can i generilize it for all the URL.

 

 

Can i use in HTTP_RESPONSE

 

to strip out global when response is sent back to browser,

 

Do you think that'sll work.

 

 

appreciate it

Hi Puli,

If you have a lot of URLs then I suppose you might have to use the Class objects.

If you want to simply strip out global in the URI then I suppose you can use a string map which would search and replace "/global/" with "/"

when HTTP_REQUEST {   
       HTTP::uri [string map {/global/ / } [HTTP::uri]]
}

I hope this helps

Bhattman

Here is an forumn post that talks about it

Puli,

 

 

One other thing. I think the reason you are seeing the uri change in the browser is because even though you are rewriting the request, you are NOT rewriting the responses. Look at the HTTP headers (using something like LiveHTTP Headers for FireFox) and you will see that the responses from the server are sending your browser to the new uri WITH the /global. Try this:

 

 

when HTTP_REQUEST {

 

if { [HTTP::uri] starts_with "/eng"}{

 

HTTP::path "/global[HTTP::path]"

 

}

 

}

 

 

when HTTP_RESPONSE {

 

Remove inserted path from HTTP responses

 

if { [HTTP::is_redirect]}{

 

HTTP::header replace Location [string map -nocase {"/global" ""} [HTTP::header Location]]

 

} elseif {

 

[HTTP::header value "Content-Type"] contains "text"} {

 

STREAM::expression "@/global@@"

 

STREAM::enable

 

} else {

 

STREAM::disable

 

}

 

}

 

 

 

This will insert /global to each of the requests and remove it from the responses. You will need to add a generic stream profile to the VIP but I think it will give you what you are looking for.

 

 

Joe Martin

Hi Joe,

 

 

the above code will only remove /global from the response URI right?, it will leave any references in content of the page.

 

Just confirming.

 

 

thanks,

 

Puli.