How do I convert a file path to a URL in ASP.NET

Solution 1:

this is what i use:

private string MapURL(string path)
{
    string appPath = Server.MapPath("/").ToLower();
    return string.Format("/{0}", path.ToLower().Replace(appPath, "").Replace(@"\", "/"));
 }

Solution 2:

As far as I know, there's no method to do what you want; at least not directly. I'd store the photosLocation as a path relative to the application; for example: "~/Images/". This way, you could use MapPath to get the physical location, and ResolveUrl to get the URL (with a bit of help from System.IO.Path):

string photosLocationPath = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(photosLocation);
if (Directory.Exists(photosLocationPath))
{
    string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(photosLocationPath, "*.jpg");
    if (files.Length > 0)
    {
        string filenameRelative = photosLocation +  Path.GetFilename(files[0])   
        return Page.ResolveUrl(filenameRelative);
    }
}

Solution 3:

The problem with all these answers is that they do not take virtual directories into account.

Consider:

Site named "tempuri.com/" rooted at c:\domains\site
virtual directory "~/files" at c:\data\files
virtual directory "~/files/vip" at c:\data\VIPcust\files

So:

Server.MapPath("~/files/vip/readme.txt") 
  = "c:\data\VIPcust\files\readme.txt"

But there is no way to do this:

MagicResolve("c:\data\VIPcust\files\readme.txt") 
   = "http://tempuri.com/files/vip/readme.txt"

because there is no way to get a complete list of virtual directories.

Solution 4:

I've accepted Fredriks answer as it appears to solve the problem with the least amount of effort however the Request object doesn't appear to conatin the ResolveUrl method. This can be accessed through the Page object or an Image control object:

myImage.ImageUrl = Page.ResolveUrl(photoURL);
myImage.ImageUrl = myImage.ResolveUrl(photoURL);

An alternative, if you are using a static class as I am, is to use the VirtualPathUtility:

myImage.ImageUrl = VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute(photoURL);