IIS Where are my log files?

4 December 2013

This is one of those things that once you know is very very simple, but finding out can be very very annoying.

IIS by default will store a log file for each site that it runs. This gives you valuable details on each request to the site that can help when errors are being reported by users.

When you go searching for them your initial thought may be to go to IIS and look at the site you want the files for. There you will see an item called logging. Excellent you think, this will tell you all you need to know.

There's even a button saying "View Log File...", but once you click it you realise things aren't so simple. The link and folder path on the logging page both take you to a folder, containing more folders. In those folders are the logs, but there's a folder for each site in IIS and they've all got a weird name. How do you know which folder has the log files for the site you want?

Back on the IIS logging screen there's nothing to say which folder the files will be in. There isn't any indication anywhere.

The answer however is very easy. Each folder has the Site ID in its name. You can find the Site ID for your site in IIS either by looking at the sites list

or clicking on a site and clicking advanced settings

Creating 301 redirects in web.config

20 November 2013

For various reasons at times you may need to create a 301 redirect to another URL. This could be as a result of a page moving or you just need to create some friendly URLS.

As a developer you may be tempted to do something like this in code...

1private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
2{
3    Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
4    Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com");
5}

But do you really want your project cluttered up with files who's only purpose is to redirect to another page!

You may also be tempted to try doing something with .NET's RouteCollection. This would certainly solve an issue on creating a redirect for anything without a file extension, but there is a better way.

In your web.config file under the configuration node create something like this

1<location path="twitter">
2  <system.webServer>
3    <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://twitter.com/TwitterName" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
4  </system.webServer>
5</location>

The location path specifies that path on your site that this redirect will apply to. The destination value in the httpRedirect is where the redirect will go to. As well as setting Permanent for the httpResponseStatus you can also specify Found or Temporary depending on your needs.

HTML5 Series - Array

16 December 2012

If your going to do any sort of JavaScript programming it's not going to be long until you have to work with an array, so there's a few array functions you need to know about.

Push and Pop
Push and Pop are functions that add and remove items from an array. The easiest way to understand what they are doing is to imagine your array as a stack of paper. When you push and item onto the array it's the same as putting it on the top of your pile. When you Pop an item off it's the same as taking the top item from the pile.

1var myArray = [] // Declare a new array
2myArray.push("Red");
3myArray.push("Blue");
4 
5var value1 = myArray.pop();
6var value2 = myArray.pop();
7 
8alert(value1); // should alert the value Blue
9alert(value2); // should alert the value Red

Foreach loop
Probably one of the most useful functions for an array is the for each loop. A for each loop is essentially calling a function for each item in the array (hence for each). This is particularly useful in all kinds of scenarios.

1var myArray = ["blue", "red", "green"];
2 
3myArray.forEach(function (x) {
4    alert(x);
5});

Filter
As the name suggests filtering is a way to find items in your array. If you know C# then it works in a similar way to a lambda expression. The filter function takes a parameter of a function. Like the forEach loop the function is called on each item in the array, the function must then returns either true or false depending on if the filter criteria matched.

In this example notice that the result of myArray.filter is being assigned to another variable. This is because applying the filter wont actually remove items from the myArray array.

1var myArray = ["blue", "red", "green"];
2 
3var results = myArray.filter(function(x) {
4    if (x == "blue")
5        return true;
6    else
7        return false;
8})
9 
10results.forEach(function (x) {
11    alert(x);
12});

Some, Every
The some and every functions can be used to see if some items in the array match a criteria of if all of them do. They return either true or false.

Like the filter function, a function is passed as the criteria and returns either true or false.

1var myArray = ["blue", "red", "green"];
2 
3alert(myArray.some(function (x) {
4    if (x == "blue")
5        return true;
6    else
7        return false;
8})); // Alerts true as 1 item in the array is blue
9 
10alert(myArray.every(function (x) {
11    if (x == "blue")
12        return true;
13    else
14        return false;
15})); // Alerts false as not every item in the array is blue

Concat
Concat is used to combine 2 arrays into 2 new array.

1var myArray = ["blue", "red", "green"];
2var myArray2 = ["yellow", "orange"];
3 
4var myArray3 = myArray.concat(myArray2);

Slice
Slice lets you create a new array from an existing by letting you specify the start and end item. Those items and the others between then form the new array.

1var myArray = ["blue", "red", "green"];
2var myArray2 = myArray.slice(2, 3); // selects red and green
3

Splice
Splice can be used to add and remove items in an array. The function has the syntax:

arrayName.splice(index, how many, items to add);

Note: the index value starts at 0.

For example in our colour array we could add yellow and orange in between red and green with the following:

1var myArray = ["blue", "red", "green"];
2myArray.splice(2, 0, "yellow", "orange");
3 
4myArray.forEach(function (x) {
5    alert(x);
6});

Alternatively we could replace red and green with yellow and orange.

1var myArray = ["blue", "red", "green"];
2myArray.splice(1, 2, "yellow", "orange");
3 
4myArray.forEach(function (x) {
5    alert(x);
6});

A couple of others

Sort - Sorts the array into alphabetical order

Reverse - Reverses the order of the array