Creating a site just for URL redirecting (.NET MVC) due to changing domains and URLs

Question

I'd just like to hear about any experience creating a (simple) site for redirecting requests.

Basically we have multiple domains, but as we add more domains and change URLs, there is a huge problem of maintaining old links.

When discussing this we are considering using one constant site to determine where the present url is located.

The idea would be pretty simple, just e.g. links.url.com and then a parameter to find a database row which would contain e.g. domain, parameters, and any other necessary fields to redirect successfully.

for example: links.url.com/id=12345 would read the new domain e.g. url2.com and the parameters id=324324324&id2=34234 so the controller would just redirect to url2.com/id=324324324&id2=34234.

Is this a good way to handle changing URLs as the domains and URLs change? Are there downfalls to this approach, or better ways to go about URL change?

Answer 1

The best way is to issue HttpResponse.RedirectPermanent with the new location and you can do so from your 404 page code-behind to see if the location they're trying to reach is the old one so you don't need a new site.