remove index.php on Windows 2012 iis 8 using URL Rewrite

Question

I have the latest version of EE installed on a Windows 2012 Server with the URL Rewrite module installed. I'm migrating over to this server from an older apache installation that used Mod Rewrite successfully.

EE is installed in a subdirectory one level down from root (ee) and each dept's index.php file is in another directory (dept1, dept2, etc).

E:/data/web1/ee
E:/data/web1/dept1
E:/data/web1/dept2

We have a bunch of extra EE 'sites' added for various internal departments so I need the rewrite to handle those as well.

<rule name="EE rewrite" stopProcessing="true">
    <match url="^/(dept1|dept2|dept3|dept4|dept5)/(.*)$" ignoreCase="true" />
    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAny">
        <add input="{R:1}" pattern="^(index\\.php|images|css|js|favicon\\.ico)" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />
        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />
        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />
    </conditions>
    <action type="Rewrite" url="/{R:1}/index.php/{R:1}/{R:2}" />
</rule>

I've tried importing the apache conf file and that didn't work so I've been bashing my head over this for a while.

With this current iteration above it loads the admin control panel and loads dept home pages ok but fails to load department subpages and links. They return 404.

this works: http://test.example.edu/dept2/
this fails: http://test.example.edu/dept2/blah/stuff

What am I missing?

After resolving the main issue, what can be improved upon?
Might it be an EE config or IIS config?

Answer 1

I stay 70 million miles away from IIS, but some general research tells me:

http://www.helicontech.com/isapi_rewrite

purchasing that module for IIS will give your best shot at handling EE with IIS. Also:

http://www.iis.net/learn/application-frameworks/install-and-configure-php-applications-on-iis/expressionengine-on-iis

Not sure why you'd want to run PHP on a less powerful agent (I assume not your choice) and very clearly less supported openly (I can whip up anything you want in .htaccess like magic, but XML? Lolwut?). I know this isn't the most helpful answer, but I don't know how many IIS ringers you are going to find here. To be honest, you'd probably be better off asking this on StackOverflow.

Answer 2

These are the steps I took to get it to work.

1. edit EE system config.php:
   

   $config[‘uri_protocol’] = ‘QUERY_STRING’;

2. Expression Engine control panel:
   Force URL query strings = Off

3. rewrites:
   

rule 1:

^(dept1|dept2|dept3)/?(.*)$
{R:1}/index.php?/{R:1}/{R:2}

rule 2:

^(.*)$<br/>
ABC/index.php?/{R:1}

I also added 'ignore if file' and 'ignore if folder' so the site would display correctly and so I could get into the EE admin control panel.

The entire block of rules is viewable here where I posted the same question on the Ellis Labs site.