Configure Windows Azure For URL rewrite using WordPress

Question

I have just created a website using Windows Azure and their template for a WordPress blog. The site loads fine and all is well.

The problem though, comes when I try to get to a page with a permalink. Through WordPress configuration, I updated my permalinks to be in this format: http://www.myblog.net/blog/The-Post-Name-Is-Here. The problem with this is that when I attempt to go to that URL, I get this error:

The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

If I go to the shortlink for that same topic (e.g. http://www.myblog.net/?p=241), the page is found and all is well.

I have researched this quite a lot and have found that there is a url rewrite for apache, but that obviously won't work for me. I have also found that there is a url rewrite for IIS and I have played with this locally. You can configure this to properly manage the url rewrite. However, there is no such IIS panel in the Windows Azure Websites configuration portal.

I have also read a lot about editing web.config and htaccess, but neither of these files are in my wwwroot directory (or any child directories) for my website on azure.

So, does anyone know how to configure azure websites to manage permalinks properly?

Answer 1

You need to understand that the configuration is done in a Web.config file, not in a .htaccess file. So first, in WordPress settings, change the permalink to a custom structure without "index.php", such as:

/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

Also make sure in WordPress Settings, General Settings section, the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) are correct.

Next, using FTP, WebMatrix or other tool, create a Web.config file in your WordPress site's root directory:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Main Rule" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url=".*" />
                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

For a step-by-step tutorial, you can refer to Pretty WordPress Permalinks on Azure.

Hope it helps!

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