What is the IIS equivalent of a rewrite rule that sends all requests to a PHP file?

Question

I've always used Apache for all my web development work and I'm struggling to get my head around IIS. I've got an API that re-routes all requests to one particular file: 'api.php', how would I do the following in IIS:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/.* /api.php

My server only allows web.config files to achieve this so I have no access to IIS manager, or anything of that nature. I'm using IIS 7.5.

Answer 1

The design pattern you are using is called the "front controller" -- a central entry point for handling requests.

Here is a website that shows how to implement that pattern with various webservers. Here is the configuration they recommend for IIS in the web.config file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <defaultDocument>
            <files>
                <clear />
                <add value="index.php" />
            </files>
        </defaultDocument>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Silex Front Controller" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^(.*)$" ignoreCase="false" />
                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" appendQueryString="true" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Answer 2

First Method :

Install web platform installer from:
http://www.iis.net/downloads

Find the urlrewrite and add to IIS, then you can find URL rewrite section in IIS.

You can create a new rule or import from .htaccess file via URL rewrite.

Second and Easy Method :

1. Open IIS and select related website
2. Go to errors section and find 404 error.
3. Double click on it.
4. Change URL to /index.php

Now all unknown requests redirect to index.php.