Replace Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler in web configuration with a patch file inside the handlers

Question

Replace Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler in web configuration with a patch file inside the handlers.

Existing one:

`<add verb="*" path="sitecore_media.ashx" type="Sitecore.Resources.Media.MediaRequestHandler, Sitecore.Kernel" name="Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler" /`>

custom handler:

<add verb="*" path="sitecore_media.ashx" type="example.example.example.Processors.CustomMediaRequestHandler, example.example.Redirects" name="Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler"/>

Answer 1

As the media handler is inside the Web.config you need to use transformation for Web.config and for this transformation you need to use SlowCheetah. Just like in the below image, I have created Web.Debug.config and Web.Release.config and both configs have different values/settings so as per your requirement you can create your configuration.

You can find more details here https://naveed-ahmad.com/tag/slowcheetah/

Previously I have faced an issue related to slow cheetah so you can check here as well in case you face the same problem.

Answer 2

The patch:instead attribute is used to replace the existing Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler processor in the initialize pipeline with your custom handler.

1. Create a new patch file, for example, CustomMediaRequestHandler.config, in the App_Config/Include folder.

   <configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
     <sitecore>
       <pipelines>
         <initialize>
           <processor type="example.example.example.Processors.CustomMediaRequestHandler, example.example.Redirects" patch:instead="processor[@type='Sitecore.Resources.Media.MediaRequestHandler, Sitecore.Kernel']"/>
         </initialize>
       </pipelines>
     </sitecore>
   </configuration>
   

2.If your handler configuration is under the <handlers> section, you can use the following XML structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <add verb="*" path="sitecore_media.ashx" type="example.example.example.Processors.CustomMediaRequestHandler, example.example.Redirects" name="Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler" patch:instead="add[@name='Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler']"/>
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Hope this help!

Answer 3

You can override the out-of-the-box media handler with your own like below.

Example of code of the custom Media Request Handler

using System.Web;
using Sitecore.Resources.Media;

namespace MyCustomCode.Handlers
{
    public class MediaRequestHandler : Sitecore.Resources.Media.MediaRequestHandler
    {
        protected override bool DoProcessRequest(HttpContext context, MediaRequest request, Media media)
        {
            // Do your authentication and redirect logic here
            return base.DoProcessRequest(context, request, media);
        }
    }
}

And use a patch like this.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
    <system.webServer>
        <handlers>
            <add verb="*" path="sitecore_media.ashx" type="MyCustomCode.Handlers.MediaRequestHandler, MyCustomCode" name="Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler" xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)" />
        </handlers>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

In order to patch your custom implementation for media handler inside Web.config, you need to create a transformation file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
   <system.webServer>
      <handlers>
        <add verb="*" path="sitecore_media.ashx" type="{{CustomImplementation}}" name="Sitecore.MediaRequestHandler" xdt:Transform="Replace" xdt:Locator="Match(path)" />
      </handlers>
   </system.webServer>
</configuration>

You can use below link to set up SlowCheetah on your project, to configure transformation on Web.config file, this will create Web.Debug.config and Web.Release.config file on the solution.

https://www.jondjones.com/learn-sitecore-cms/sitecore-developers-guide/team-development-for-sitecore/setting-up-your-sitecore-project-to-use-config-transforms/

Hope this helps!!!