Microsoft Web API: How do you do a Server.MapPath?

Solution 1:

You can use HostingEnvironment.MapPath in any context where System.Web objects like HttpContext.Current are not available (e.g also from a static method).

var mappedPath = System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/SomePath");

See also What is the difference between Server.MapPath and HostingEnvironment.MapPath?

Solution 2:

string root = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data");

Solution 3:

As an aside to those that stumble along across this, one nice way to run test level on using the HostingEnvironment call, is if accessing say a UNC share: \example\ that is mapped to ~/example/ you could execute this to get around IIS-Express issues:

#if DEBUG
    var fs = new FileStream(@"\\example\file",FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
#else
    var fs = new FileStream(HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/example/file"), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
#endif

I find that helpful in case you have rights to locally test on a file, but need the env mapping once in production.

Solution 4:

I can't tell from the context you supply, but if it's something you just need to do at app startup, you can still use Server.MapPath in WebApiHttpApplication; e.g. in Application_Start().

I'm just answering your direct question; the already-mentioned HostingEnvironment.MapPath() is probably the preferred solution.