The Advanced Url Management features of DNN 7.1 are switched on by default for new DNN 7.1 installations.

For upgrades of earlier versions to DNN 7.1, the feature is not activated, and the upgraded site will continue to use the 'humanfriendly' mode of the Url Rewriter / Friendly Url Provider.

Prerequisites

IIS 7 requires a hotfix to be installed to prevent some errors from occurring when using the Advanced URL provider. Specifically, to be able to support extension-less URLs.

Steps to Enable

To switch from 'humanfriendly' mode to 'advanced' mode, follow these steps:

1. Take a backup of the web.config file for your site
2. Open the web.config file, and search for 'urlformat'. You should find this in the section, like this:
   

   
   <add name="DNNFriendlyUrl" type="DotNetNuke.Services.Url.FriendlyUrl.DNNFriendlyUrlProvider, DotNetNuke.HttpModules" includePageName="true" regexMatch="[^a-zA-Z0-9 _-]" urlFormat="humanfriendly" />
   
   

   
   

1. Change the urlFormat value to 'advanced', like this:
   

   
   <add name="DNNFriendlyUrl" type="DotNetNuke.Services.Url.FriendlyUrl.DNNFriendlyUrlProvider, DotNetNuke.HttpModules" includePageName="true" regexMatch="[^a-zA-Z0-9 _-]" urlFormat="advanced" />
   
   

   
   

1. Save the web.config file.
2. Request the home page of the new site - the site is now using the Advanced Url Format.
3. Fully test the site to ensure it is operating as expected. If any issues are found, restore the web.config backup.
   

This information applies to all editions of DNN from 7.1 onward.

There is no UI element available to do this task - it must be completed in the web.config file. This is by design.

Configuring AUM

DNN Platform contains only URL Extensions management in Admin > Site Settings out of the box, while Evoq products contain a number of additional settings.

All settings can be configured directly in database tables HostSettings and SiteSettings, however, easier is the use of a free extension, which might be downloaded from dnnurlmanagement.codeplex.com and installed as any other module. Create a blank page in Host menu and a blank page in Admin menu for it and place an instance of the module on each of it. You will notice both modules installed, delete the ones which don't match the menu (first one: admin, second one: host).