Call the default asp.net HttpHandler from a custom handler

Question

I\'m adding ASP.NET routing to an older webforms app. I\'m using a custom HttpHandler to process everything. In some situations I would like to map a particular pat

Answer 1

Persistence pays off! This actually works, and since this information seems to be available pretty much nowhere I thought I'd answer my own question. Thanks to Robert for this post on instantiating things with internal constructors, this is the key.

http://www.rvenables.com/2009/08/instantiating-classes-with-internal-constructors/

public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) {
    // the internal constructor doesn't do anything but prevent you from instantiating
    // the factory, so we can skip it.
    PageHandlerFactory factory =
        (PageHandlerFactory)System.Runtime.Serialization.FormatterServices
        .GetUninitializedObject(typeof(System.Web.UI.PageHandlerFactory));

     string newTarget  = "default.aspx"; 
     string newQueryString = // whatever you want
     string oldQueryString = context.Request.QueryString.ToString();
     string queryString = newQueryString + oldQueryString!="" ? 
         "&" + newQueryString :
         "";

     // the 3rd parameter must be just the file name.
     // the 4th parameter should be the physical path to the file, though it also
     //   works fine if you pass an empty string - perhaps that's only to override
     //   the usual presentation based on the path?

     var handler = factory.GetHandler(context, "GET",newTarget,
         context.Request.MapPath(context,newTarget));

     // Update the context object as it should appear to your page/app, and
     // assign your new handler.

     context.RewritePath(newTarget  , "", queryString);
     context.Handler = handler;

     // .. and done

     handler.ProcessRequest(context);
}

... and like some small miracle, an aspx page processes & renders completely in-process without the need to redirect.

I expect this will only work in IIS7.