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Switching Between HTTP and HTTPS Automatically: Version 2

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7 Feb 2011CPOL18 min read 3.6M   680  
An article on automatically switching between HTTP and HTTPS protocols without hard-coding absolute URLs
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>

  <configSections>
	<section name="secureWebPages" type="Hyper.Web.Security.SecureWebPageSectionHandler, WebPageSecurity" allowLocation="false" />
  </configSections>
  
	<!--
	WEB PAGE SECURITY
		This section will redirect any matching pages to the HTTPS protocol for SSL security
		and, if needed, redirect any non-matching pages (or pages matching an entry marked secure="False") 
		to the HTTP protocol to remove the security and encryption.

		Set secureWebPages mode="On", "RemoteOnly" or "LocalOnly" to enable web page security; 
		"Off" to disable (default = "On").
		
		"On": Security is enabled and all requests are monitored.
		"RemoteOnly": Only requests from remote clients are monitored.
		"LocalOnly": Only requests from the local server are monitored.
		"Off": No requests are monitored.
		
		Set secureWebPages encryptedUri to a specific URI to indicate where to redirect when the module decides that 
		security is needed. Likewise, set secureWebPages unencryptedUri for times the module decides that security is
		not needed.
		
		Set secureWebPages maintainPath="False" to prevent the module from maintaining the current path
		when redirecting to the specified URIs (default = "True").
		
		Set secureWebPages warningBypassMode="AlwaysBypass" to always bypass security warnings;
		"NeverBypass" to never bypass the warnings (default = "BypassWithQueryParam").
		
		"AlwaysBypass": Always bypass security warnings when switching to an unencrypted page.
		"BypassWithQueryParam": Only bypass security warnings when switching to an unencrypted page if the 
								proper query parameter is present.
		"NeverBypass": Never bypass security warnings when switching to an unencrypted page.
		
		Set secureWebPages bypassQueryParamName to the name of a query parameter that will indicate to the module to bypass
		any security warning if warningBypassMode="BypassWithQueryParam" (default = "BypassSecurityWarning").
		
		- Add <directory> tags for each directory to secure.
		- Add <file> tags for each file to secure.
		- Both tags expect a "path" attribute to the directory or file that should be evaluated.
		  Specify "/" as the directory path in order to denote the application root (not the site root).
		- Both tags may include a "secure" attribute indicating whether or not to secure the 
		  directory or file (default = "True"). Possible values are "True" to force security, 
		  "False" to force insecurity and "Ignore" to ignore the file or directory and do nothing.
		- <directory> tags may include a "recurse" attribute. If "True", all files in any sub-directories
		  are included (default = "False").
	-->
	<secureWebPages mode="RemoteOnly">
		<file path="Default.aspx" secure="False" />
		<file path="Lib/PopupCalendar.aspx" secure="Ignore" />
		<file path="Members/ViewStatistics.aspx" />
		<file path="Admin/MoreAdminStuff.aspx" secure="False" />
		<directory path="/" />
		<directory path="Admin" />
		<directory path="Members/Secure" recurse="True" />
	</secureWebPages>
  
  <system.web>
  
	<httpModules>
		<add name="SecureWebPage" type="Hyper.Web.Security.SecureWebPageModule, WebPageSecurity" />
	</httpModules>
	
	<!--  DYNAMIC DEBUG COMPILATION
          Set compilation debug="true" to enable ASPX debugging.  Otherwise, setting this value to
          false will improve runtime performance of this application. 
          Set compilation debug="true" to insert debugging symbols (.pdb information)
          into the compiled page. Because this creates a larger file that executes
          more slowly, you should set this value to true only when debugging and to
          false at all other times. For more information, refer to the documentation about
          debugging ASP.NET files.
    -->
    <compilation defaultLanguage="c#" debug="true" />

    <!--  CUSTOM ERROR MESSAGES
          Set customErrors mode="On" or "RemoteOnly" to enable custom error messages, "Off" to disable. 
          Add <error> tags for each of the errors you want to handle.

          "On" Always display custom (friendly) messages.
          "Off" Always display detailed ASP.NET error information.
          "RemoteOnly" Display custom (friendly) messages only to users not running 
           on the local Web server. This setting is recommended for security purposes, so 
           that you do not display application detail information to remote clients.
    -->
    <customErrors mode="Off" /> 

    <!--  AUTHENTICATION 
          This section sets the authentication policies of the application. Possible modes are "Windows", 
          "Forms", "Passport" and "None"

          "None" No authentication is performed. 
          "Windows" IIS performs authentication (Basic, Digest, or Integrated Windows) according to 
           its settings for the application. Anonymous access must be disabled in IIS. 
          "Forms" You provide a custom form (Web page) for users to enter their credentials, and then 
           you authenticate them in your application. A user credential token is stored in a cookie.
          "Passport" Authentication is performed via a centralized authentication service provided
           by Microsoft that offers a single logon and core profile services for member sites.
    -->
    <authentication mode="Windows" /> 

	<!--  AUTHORIZATION 
          This section sets the authorization policies of the application. You can allow or deny access
          to application resources by user or role. Wildcards: "*" mean everyone, "?" means anonymous 
          (unauthenticated) users.
    -->

    <authorization>
        <allow users="*" /> <!-- Allow all users -->
            <!--  <allow     users="[comma separated list of users]"
                             roles="[comma separated list of roles]"/>
                  <deny      users="[comma separated list of users]"
                             roles="[comma separated list of roles]"/>
            -->
    </authorization>

    <!--  APPLICATION-LEVEL TRACE LOGGING
          Application-level tracing enables trace log output for every page within an application. 
          Set trace enabled="true" to enable application trace logging.  If pageOutput="true", the
          trace information will be displayed at the bottom of each page.  Otherwise, you can view the 
          application trace log by browsing the "trace.axd" page from your web application
          root. 
    -->
    <trace enabled="false" requestLimit="10" pageOutput="true" traceMode="SortByTime" localOnly="true" />

    <!--  SESSION STATE SETTINGS
          By default ASP.NET uses cookies to identify which requests belong to a particular session. 
          If cookies are not available, a session can be tracked by adding a session identifier to the URL. 
          To disable cookies, set sessionState cookieless="true".
    -->
    <sessionState 
            mode="InProc"
            stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424"
            sqlConnectionString="data source=127.0.0.1;Trusted_Connection=yes"
            cookieless="false" 
            timeout="20" 
    />

    <!--  GLOBALIZATION
          This section sets the globalization settings of the application. 
    -->
    <globalization 
            requestEncoding="utf-8" 
            responseEncoding="utf-8" 
    />
   
 </system.web>

</configuration>

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License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Web Developer
United States United States
I began programming on my Commodore 64 at around the age of 12. After migrating to DOS and then Windows, I decided to take on the Web. Several languages and platforms later, I have settled in with .NET nicely. I am currently the owner of a software consulting company and lead application developer for a learning-based technology consultation company.

The love of a finished application is usually at war with the desire to improve it as soon as it's released (they're never really finished).

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