Thanks for the great information Chris.

I believe I could run with this now.

What is the recommended or best practice method for redirects within an Umbraco user control? Is there a specific umbraco method?

No specific method, just use standard C#/VB.NET code.

Remember that for a 301 redirect you can't use Context.Response.Redirect(), you have to do something like

   Response.Status =   "301 Moved Permanently"   ;
   Response.AddHeader( "Location" ,"http://www.domainname.com/testpage.aspx" ); 

In your xslt it is also possible to set a https path directly. I do something like this:

[code]

              <xsl:when test="./ancestor-or-self::node [string(./data [@alias='useHTTPS']) = '1']">
                <xsl:value-of select="FairlieAgile:NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(@id, 1, 0, 0)"/>
              </xsl:when>

[/code]

(obviously this requires adding a useHTTPS field to your document.)

The code to generate a https paths is:

[code]

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;

namespace FairlieAgile.library
{
    public class SSLPath
    {
        public static string NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(int nodeId, bool isSsl, bool isOverride, bool isEncoded)
        {
            string proto = "http";
            if (isSsl)
                proto = "https";
            if (isOverride && HttpContext.Current.Request.IsSecureConnection)
                proto = "https";
            if (isOverride && !HttpContext.Current.Request.IsSecureConnection)
                proto = "http";
            string niceUrl = umbraco.library.NiceUrl(nodeId);

            if (niceUrl.IndexOf("http://") == -1 && niceUrl.IndexOf("https://") == -1)
                niceUrl = proto + "://" + umbraco.library.RequestServerVariables("SERVER_NAME") + niceUrl;

            //if (proto == "https" && niceUrl.IndexOf(".aspx") == -1)
            //    niceUrl += ".aspx";

            if (isEncoded)
                return HttpContext.Current.Server.UrlEncode(niceUrl);
            else
                return niceUrl;
        }
    }
}

[/code]

lets try that again.

In your xslt it is also possible to set a https path directly. I do something like this:

[code]

              <xsl:when test="./ancestor-or-self::node [string(./data [@alias='useHTTPS']) = '1']">
                <xsl:value-of select="FairlieAgile:NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(@id, 1, 0, 0)"/>
              </xsl:when>

[/code]

(obviously this requires adding a useHTTPS field to your document.)

The code to generate a https paths is:

[code]

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;

namespace FairlieAgile.library
{
    public class SSLPath
    {
        public static string NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(int nodeId, bool isSsl, bool isOverride, bool isEncoded)
        {
            string proto = "http";
            if (isSsl)
                proto = "https";
            if (isOverride && HttpContext.Current.Request.IsSecureConnection)
                proto = "https";
            if (isOverride && !HttpContext.Current.Request.IsSecureConnection)
                proto = "http";
            string niceUrl = umbraco.library.NiceUrl(nodeId);

            if (niceUrl.IndexOf("http://") == -1 && niceUrl.IndexOf("https://") == -1)
                niceUrl = proto + "://" + umbraco.library.RequestServerVariables("SERVER_NAME") + niceUrl;

            //if (proto == "https" && niceUrl.IndexOf(".aspx") == -1)
            //    niceUrl += ".aspx";

            if (isEncoded)
                return HttpContext.Current.Server.UrlEncode(niceUrl);
            else
                return niceUrl;
        }
    }
}

[/code]

third times a charm....

In your xslt it is also possible to set a https path directly. I do something like this:

              <xsl:when test="./ancestor-or-self::node [string(./data [@alias='useHTTPS']) = '1']">
                <xsl:value-of select="FairlieAgile:NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(@id, 1, 0, 0)"/>
              </xsl:when>

(obviously this requires adding a useHTTPS field to your document.)

The code to generate a https paths is:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;

namespace FairlieAgile.library
{
    public class SSLPath
    {
        public static string NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(int nodeId, bool isSsl, bool isOverride, bool isEncoded)
        {
            string proto = "http";
            if (isSsl)
                proto = "https";
            if (isOverride && HttpContext.Current.Request.IsSecureConnection)
                proto = "https";
            if (isOverride && !HttpContext.Current.Request.IsSecureConnection)
                proto = "http";
            string niceUrl = umbraco.library.NiceUrl(nodeId);

            if (niceUrl.IndexOf("http://") == -1 && niceUrl.IndexOf("https://") == -1)
                niceUrl = proto + "://" + umbraco.library.RequestServerVariables("SERVER_NAME") + niceUrl;

            //if (proto == "https" && niceUrl.IndexOf(".aspx") == -1)
            //    niceUrl += ".aspx";

            if (isEncoded)
                return HttpContext.Current.Server.UrlEncode(niceUrl);
            else
                return niceUrl;
        }
    }
}

Paul,

Thanks for the code.

The XSLT might as well be Chinese to me right now.  It is probably the most intimidating part of Umbraco to me right now but I will continue to work on it.

Your c# code is valuable to me & pretty self explanatory.

Alright, I believe I am close to success but I am having a few issues...

I followed Chris' suggestions above...

1. Create a property on one or every doctype called 'EnableSSL'
2. Create a macro (usually best a C# control) that checks the current pages 'Enable SSL' property.
3. Add the macro to your master template
4. If the property is set to true, 301 redirect  to the same page, but changing http to https

Its not quite working properly yet...

I use the pageload event to check the ssl property. Is the most efficient place to put this?

From here I check the IS_SSL property and if it is true I call Paul's method. Then I redirect to the new path which is basically the same page with "https" replacing "http"

The problem is that the page it refers to does not exist and it times out.

Here is my code for the control which I use along with Pauls method above (NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath).

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
           Node n = umbraco.presentation.nodeFactory.Node.GetCurrent();
           Property is_ssl = n.GetProperty("IS_SSL");
           if (is_ssl == null) return;
           string i = is_ssl.Value;
           if (i == "1")
              {
                  Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
                  string httpsURL = NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(n.Id, true, false, false);
                  Response.AddHeader("Location", httpsURL); 
              }
       }

 -Tim

rather than

string httpsURL = NiceUrlFullyQualifiedPath(n.Id, true, false, false);

You could try

string httpsURL = HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl.Replace("http://","https://");

Check if HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl begins with 'http' if not then just append 'https://' to the start of RawUrl.

bingo.

Got it working...

Thanks for the help Chris...

It took me a bit to configure an SSL certificate on my localhost for testing but it does work.

I did have to change the code from rawurl to absoluteuri as rawurl did not seem to contain "http" in it.

I also quickly realized I needed to only change the url if it is "http://" so as not to get stuck in a continuous loop. something i am quite good at.

here is the code...

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

            Node n = umbraco.presentation.nodeFactory.Node.GetCurrent();
            Property is_ssl = n.GetProperty("IS_SSL");
            if (is_ssl == null) return;

              if (is_ssl.Value=="1")
                  if(HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri.Contains("http://"))
              {

                  Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
                  string httpsURL = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri.Replace("http://", "https://");
                  Response.AddHeader("Location", httpsURL); 
              }

        }

is working on a reply...