Phalcon, IIS, Rewrite

Question

I am currently running Windows Server 2012 R2 with IIS 8.5 and Phalcon 2.0.8 running on PHP 5.5.

I have a rewrite rule (using the basic .htaccess file that was imported from Phalcon) and the rewrites work fine. However, I have created a system variable in the the rewrite module called APPLICATION_ENV and it is attached to the rewrite with a value of staging.

If I view any page other than the main index of /public, then the value works -- staging is properly being pulled in. However, on the index, it doesn't apply the value. Why?

EDIT: Here is my current web.config file with everything in it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Imported Rule 1" patternSyntax="ECMAScript" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^(.*)$" ignoreCase="false" />
                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php?_url=/{R:1}" appendQueryString="true" />
                    <serverVariables>
                        <set name="APPLICATION_ENV" value="staging" />
                    </serverVariables>
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Answer 1

Question (if I understood it correctly) :

Why APPLICATION_ENV is not set when I visit /public ?

Answer: The reason is that you have specified an exception:

            <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
            </conditions>

This means that if a directory exists that matches the visited path, then no rewrite is to be performed. In your case you visit /public and that's not the name of a controller, but of an actual directory. Therefore, its index file is served directly. The fact that it happens to be the same as the rewrite target is just a coincidence.