Redirecting HTTP to HTTPS using IIS Url Rewriting

I've always been a bit puzzled over the magic that surrounds Url Rewriting, it is actually very simple. What you need to do is

1. Name the rule
2. Create a pattern to use for matching the URL string that shall be rewritten
3. Optional set of conditions
4. Select the wanted action to perform if a pattern is matched and whether all conditions checks succeed

Name, Pattern, Conditions, Action.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
   <system.webServer>
      <rewrite>
         <rules>
            <rule name="Redirect HTTP to HTTPS" stopProcessing="true">
               <match url="(.*)" />
               <conditions>
                  <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" />
               </conditions>
               <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" redirectType="Permanent" />
            </rule>
         </rules>
      </rewrite>
   </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Since this is a snipped post I won't get into much depth but I'd like to remark the redirectType attribute in the action element in the example since that will affect search engines and some clients a lot. In my sample this is set to "Permanent", this equals a 301 redirect. There are a few other options available

• Permanent (301)
• Found (302)
• See other (303)
• Temporary (307)

Read more at, http://www.iis.net/learn/extensions/url-rewrite-module/url-rewrite-module-configuration-reference#Redirect_action