IIS7 Folder Name - Is the “+” character valid?

Question

I'm attempting to create a Google Plus redirect like this... www.domain.com/+

I have created a folder named "+" with a simple default.html file inside. Default.html is a default document and it contains a simple JS redirect. I get a 404 like the folder and file do not exist. Very strange!

The plus character appears to be valid for folder names so I'm stumped. Any ideas?

Thanks

Answer 1

How about a nice 301 redirect in a web.config:

<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <security>
            <requestFiltering allowDoubleEscaping="true" />
        </security>
    </system.webServer>
    <location path="+">
        <system.webServer>
        <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://plus.google.com/{userprofileid}" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
        </system.webServer>
    </location>
</configuration>

Edit: I allowed double escaping which disables IIS7's interpolation of a + as a space. Solution obtained from: http://www.ifinity.com.au/Blog/entryid/60/404-error-in-iis-7-when-using-a-url-with-a-plus-sign-in-the-path

Answer 2

In IIS7, by default, + is often times interpolated as a space. IIS7 may allow for folders named +, but the URL processor is interpolating it first to a space.

See http://www.ifinity.com.au/Blog/entryid/60/404-error-in-iis-7-when-using-a-url-with-a-plus-sign-in-the-path for a workaround, but this potentially opens up security flaws.