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windowsiisvirtual-directory

Making Virtual Dictionaries Visible and Accessible on IIS default file listing


I'm trying to get Virtual Directories to show up like regular directories on my file server. I have the Virtual Directory setup but it wont appear on the default directories browsing site, though It can be browsed to manually. How can I get it to show up like a normal folder from here that's browsable.


Solution

  • You need to understand what the virtual directory is first.

    A virtual directory is a directory name (also referred to as path) that you specify in Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 and map to a physical directory on a local or remote server. The virtual directory name becomes part of the application's URL, and users can request the URL from a browser to access content in the physical directory, such as a Web page or a list of additional directories and files. If you specify a different name than the physical directory for the virtual directory, it is more difficult for users to discover the actual physical file structure on your server because the URL does not map directly to the root of the site.

    The virtual directory does not really exist, it is used as a part of the URL to map to the physical directory. The directory browsing module in IIS is used to browse physical directories.

    So you want to display the virtual directory as a physical folder, which is not possible in IIS.

    However, I think you can implement this feature programmatically. Create a new folder UI on the page and point it to the URL of the virtual directory. But you cannot combine this method with directory browsing. This is equivalent to creating an application just to browse all directories (virtual and physical).