Question

I am using ISAPI rewrite on a project and would like to know if it is possible to publish a .htaccess file from Tridion?

I have tried creating a Page Template with the .htaccess extension but can’t create a page with no name.

Any ideas?

Could I use a C# TBB to change the page name?

Answer 1

I would also choose to use a binary to achieve this, but if you want to manage the htaccess file using text, rather than as a multimedia component, you can push a binary into your package using the following technique:

1) Push the text of the Htaccess file into the package with an accessible name (i.e. Binary_Text)
2) Use code similar to the following to create a text file from the text in the variable and add it to the package

class publishStringItemAsBinary : ITemplate
{
    public void Transform(Engine engine, Package package)
    {
        TemplatingLogger log = TemplatingLogger.GetLogger(typeof(publishStringItemAsBinary));
        TemplateUtilities utils = new TemplateUtilities();
        System.IO.Stream inputStream = null;
        try
        {
            string strInputName = package.GetValue("InputItem");
            string strFileName = package.GetValue("strFileName");
            string sg_Destination = package.GetValue("sg_Destination");
            string itemComponent = package.GetValue("mm_Component");

            inputStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(package.GetValue(strInputName)));

            log.Debug("InputObject:" + strInputName);
            log.Debug("Filename for binary:" + strFileName);
            log.Debug("Destination StructureGroup:" + sg_Destination);
            Publication contextPub = utils.getPublicationFromContext(package, engine);
            TcmUri uriLocalSG = TemplateUtilities.getLocalUri(new TcmUri(contextPub.Id), new TcmUri(sg_Destination));
            TcmUri uriLocalMMComp = TemplateUtilities.getLocalUri(new TcmUri(contextPub.Id), new TcmUri(itemComponent));
            StructureGroup sg = (StructureGroup)engine.GetObject(uriLocalSG);
            Component comp = (Component)engine.GetObject(uriLocalMMComp);
            String sBinaryPath = engine.PublishingContext.RenderedItem.AddBinary(inputStream, strFileName, sg, "nav", comp, "text/xml").Url;
            //Put a copy of the path in the package in case you need it
            package.PushItem("BinaryPath", package.CreateStringItem(ContentType.Html, sBinaryPath));
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            log.Error(e.Message);
        }
        finally
        {
            if (inputStream != null)
            {
                inputStream.Close();
            }

        }
    }
}

I think the code is pretty self explanatory. This publishes a binary of type text/xml, but there should be no issue converting it to do a plain text file.