- FIX: GoogleBot produces "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory" in ASP.NET
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Posted by oVan on Sunday, April 06, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
I found numerous "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory" errors in my Elmah-logs lately, all of them generated by the ASP.NET engine after a visit from GoogleBot. It is caused by using URL rewriting in your aspx-pages in order to have more readable URL's and better search engine rankings.
Funnily, this only started after I submitted dynamically generated sitemaps to the Google Webmaster Tools for my clients websites. Instead of improved ranking and indexing, however it resulted in exclusion of all failing URL's.
For more background information about this error, which is generated only for certain user agents including GoogleBot and Yahoo! Slurp, you can do a simple Google search. There are a few solutions to fix this, but most involve using a custom base page class or creating different .browser files for each problematic user-agent in the App_Browser directory. Having done custom browser.ini solutions with Browserhawk years ago, I did not feel like starting all over again with googlebot.browser, yahooslurp.browser etc.
By far the easiest solution is a simple change in your web.config:
Find the <authentication> section, then change the <forms> line by adding:cookieless="UseCookies"
Voila, the problem is fixed. Note that this disables cookieless functionality for forms, so if you really need that you should use a different solution.
Labels: .NET, asp.net, browser, bug, Google, Microsoft, problem, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studion 2008, vs2005, vs2008
- It is time to skin your Google!
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsAfter years of looking on the sparse Google page, it was time to pimp it up a bit. It all starts by using the personalised Google start page (iGoogle).
- Recent changes allow you to apply beautiful dynamic themes, like the cityscape theme in this screenshot:
These themes will change based on your current location and time of day. - Next, you can add small gadgets for all kinds of information. It is similar to the Windows Vista Sidebar, except that you can drag and place the gadgets in 3 columns, and that they're always visible whenever you open your personalised Google page. (Gadgets in the Windows Sidebar tend to get stuck behind active applications — although they're easily revealed with the Win+Space keyboard shortcut.)
- Finally, you can easily create your own gadgets, for yourself or to share with friends and family. You do not have to program anything! You start with one of the handy templates and literally tens of seconds later your gadget is ready!
As an example, I created a new gadget called Weekly Infrared that will bring a new infrared photo to your Google page every week.
- Recent changes allow you to apply beautiful dynamic themes, like the cityscape theme in this screenshot:
