The Path to Enlightened MSN Spaces
- Category: MSN Spaces Archive
- Posted On: 9/8/2005
- Views: 3,597
FYI: If you didn't already know, you can currently specify ANY directory / catalog / folder in your MSN Space URL after the name of your MSN Space...
*Note that the trailing forward slash "/" is not required, but it's recommended to avoid confusion with other web items that do not require a file extension.
Q: "This is sooooo cool, how is this possible?"
A: MSN Spaces uses the technology provided in ASP.NET to "map" all of the information that follows the "/members/" web directory to an MSN Space. In other words, the programmers have written a little bit of code that says:
- Does the MSN Space they are asking for in the URL exist? "/members/ThisMemberDoesNotExist/"
- If the space exists, what web page are they requesting with what parameters?
The following example will tell the code that we are asking for the MSN Space "eswanson", that we want the web page "PersonalSpace.aspx", and that we are passing some additional information to that web page... specifically that we want to see the "Blog" tab of this member's space:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/eswanson/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c01_blogpart=blogmgmt&_c=blogpart - The code then passes the work onto this web page, which likely doesn't exist in the member's MSN Space. In other words, the web page "PersonalSpace.aspx" probably doesn't physically exist under the web directory "/eswanson/". The code that handles EVERYTHING in the URL after "/members/" figures out which web page you want and gives it to you.
Pretty nifty. Nothing "incredible", since the concept has been used since the dawn of the web... But interesting.
- Category: MSN Spaces Archive
- Posted On: 9/8/2005
- Views: 3,597