Gotcha ! Special Character & in web.config

What is special about &?

Whenever you're dealing with ampersand or querystring url in rewrite rules beware of special character "&". There are chances you may play around with different ways to make it working. Inline rewritemap maps things bit difficult. Yes it might happen you have few rewrite and you end up with inline rewrite in web.config. Careful watch rewritemap urls as these may content special character as part of URI and redirection symantics. Sometimes # results in error and exception.

Always try this!

• Replace & with &Make use of html encode and decode instead of URL Encode value such as "%26"
• Good practice to keep rewritemap outside web.config . In many scenario the URL encode for ampersand as well # in querystring works.

References:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7094846/rewriting-ampersand-urls-with-iis-7-rewriting-module

http://ruslany.net/2010/05/storing-url-rewrite-mappings-in-a-separate-file/