How IIS 3.0 Handles Client Language
ID: Q177749
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The information in this article applies to:
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Microsoft Internet Information Server version 3.0
SUMMARY
This article explains:
- How Internet Information Server (IIS) handles the HTTP "Accept-
Language" field
- Why the client may be unable to access to the IIS Web Site if its
language setting matches the name of an IIS virtual directory.
MORE INFORMATION
The Accept-Language http field allows the client browser to specify the
list of "preferred" languages. For instance if you select Danish with the
Regional Settings Control Panel tool, for each HTTP request Internet
Explorer will add "Accept-Language = da in the HHTP packet. This allows
the Web Server to customize the response based on the client language.
When IIS receives the request Accept-Language field, IIS tries to see if
the "Accept-Language" virtual directory exist. If yes, then IIS modifies
the query and adds the language to the URL.
A sample is shown below. In this sample, the IIS Web Server has two
directories defined:
- Home -> C:\Inetpub\WWWROOT
- Virtual directory named da -> C:\Danish
First Request
Client language: Danish
Client request: GET /yyyy.htm Accept-Language = da
- IIS receives the request : GET /yyyy.htm Accept-Language = da
- IIS processes the language and checks if a virtual directory named "da"
exists.
- The "da" virtual directory exists. So IIS modifies the request from GET
/yyyy.htm to GET /da/yyyy.htm.
- IIS tries to return the /da/yyyy.htm page. If c:\Danish\yyyy.htm does
not exist, an error message is returned to the client.
Second Request
Client language: Italian.
Client request: GET /yyyy.htm Accept-Language = it
- IIS receives the request : GET /yyyy.htm Accept-Language = it
- IIS processes the language and checks if a virtual directory named "it"
exists
- In this case the "it" virtual directory DOES NOT exist. IIS does not
modify the request.
- IIS tries to return the /yyyy.htm page.
This feature allows IIS to return "localized" pages to the client. The
drawback is that all pages must be duplicated for each language virtual
directory.
Keywords :
Version : WinNT:3.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type :