Setting Application Mappings in IIS 6.0

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

There are many programming and scripting languages that you can use to develop Web applications. Thus, IIS uses the file name extension of a requested resource on your Web site to determine which Internet Server API (ISAPI) or Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program to run to process a request. For example, a request for a file ending with a .aspx extension causes the Web server to call the ASP.NET program (aspnet_isapi.dll) to process the request. The association of a file name extension with an ISAPI or CGI program is called application mapping.

IIS 6.0 is preconfigured to support common application mappings. You can add or remove mappings for all of the applications on a Web site or for an individual application.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /User:Administrative_AccountName "mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

Procedures

To map an extension to one or more applications

1. In IIS Manager, double-click the local computer, right-click the Web Sites folder or an individual Web site folder, and then click Properties.

   Note

   Configuration settings made at the Web Sites level are inherited by all of the Web sites on the server. You can override inheritance by configuring the individual site or site element.

2. Click the appropriate tab: Home Directory, Virtual Directory, or Directory.

3. In the Application settings area, click Configuration, and then click the Mappings tab.

4. On the Mappings tab, click Add.

5. In the Executable box, type the path to the ISAPI or CGI program that will process the file. You must specify a program in a local directory on the Web server.

6. In the Extension box, type the file name extension that you want to be associated with the ISAPI or CGI program. When the Web server receives a URL identifying a file with this extension, it calls the associated program to process the request.

7. To allow processing for files of this type in a directory with Script permission, select the Script engine check box. When a directory has Script permission set (instead of Execute permission), only files associated with applications that are designated script engines can be processed in the directory.

8. Select the Verify that file exists check box to allow the server to check that the requested script exists before mapping an extension to an application.

Note

On the Mappings tab there is a Verbs column, which was formerly called Exclusions in IIS 4.0. Changing to the word verbs addresses the issue of future compatibility, as more new HTTP verbs will be added to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

To remove an application mapping

1. In IIS Manager, double-click the local computer, and then click the starting-point directory of the application you want.

2. Right-click the Web Sites folder, and then click Properties.

3. Click the appropriate tab: Home Directory, Virtual Directory, or Directory.

4. In the Application settings area, click Configuration, and then click the Mappings tab.

5. On the Mappings tab, click Remove.

   Requests for files with this file name extension are no longer processed in this Web site or directory.

Related Information

• For information about how to configure a Web site to run an ISAPI application regardless of the extension of the requested file, see Installing Wildcard Application Mappings.