I'm developing a web application and want to avoid having to use a virtual path when executing the internal web server.

Currently I have a web site named "website". When I start the web server it will automatically setup a server on some port e.g. 269 and with a virtual path of "website". So I'm able to access the site via:

http://localhost:269/website

However I would like to access it via this url instead:

http://localhost:269/

and I can't see it should be a problem since the port is unique. I need this in order to use absolute paths in my HTML pages. I do this in order to ease the rearrangement of files e.g. if I have an HTML file in this location:

/projects
/test
/myfile.html

I'm able to refer to a .css file (in a 'css' folder from the root) using:

<link href="/css/mycssfile.css" />

I don't have to update this reference if I decides to move the "myfile.html" under e.g. "projects" instead of under "projects/test". I don't want to use urls such as "../../css/mycssfile.css".

Does anyone know how to change the "Virtual Path" part of the Visual Web Developer Web Server? That would solve my problem. Alternatively I could deply it to a virtual site under IIS but I don't want to do this during development.

Try using the ~ shortcut for your links. Instead of '/projects/test/', use '~/projects/test/'. ~ is a shortcut for the ApplicationPath of the site, 'website' in your example.

This is good because it makes your site more portable. You can develop on /website on your dev machine, FTP it to your production server on the root , and they both work. The '~' figures out the correct relative path for you.

One thing though, this only works for server controls, such as NavigateUrl Properties in the HyperLink/ButtonList/HyperLinkColumn (in the GridView). It also works for your CSS <link> tags in your head if your head has a runat="server" on it.

I wish the '~' would resolve to an absolute path, however.

Oh, and if you need the absolute path for a non-server control, use Request.ApplicationPath:

Test

Just a thought...

---

rick

http://techno-weenie.net

Create a new web project, in the Location input field you write http://localhost. But when doing this the web project will be located at the localhost. So if you do it for the next web project, it will override the existing one.

If you want to use IIS instead of the internal web server, you can select the Browse button when you create a new web site, and choose Local IIS.

Another solution is to use the "~" in the path (Will only work for server controls but will later also work for html controls).

Example:

<asp:Image ImageUrl="~/images/image.gif" runat="server"....>

The "~" will be translated to the virtual path. When this control is rendered during the runtime it will be:

/YourVirutalPath/images/images.gif

So by using "~" you don't need to worry about entering the name of the virtual path.

---

/Fredrik Norm?n NSQUARED2
Microsoft MVP, MCSD, MCAD, MCT

Cornerstone

My Blog, ASP.Net 2.0 etc

Thanks. I'm already using ~ for my server controls and it works great. When you say "...but will later also work for html controls" does this mean it will work for standard (no "runat=xxx") html code such as this?

<link href="~/projects/test/mycss.css" />

If that's the case it's really good and I'll just temporarily create an html filter which will replace any "~/" with "Request.ApplicationPath". And then phase this out when it's a core feature in ASP.NET.

The "~" will work for HTML control marked with runat="server". This will probably work in beta 2. That is what I have heard.

---

/Fredrik Norm?n NSQUARED2
Microsoft MVP, MCSD, MCAD, MCT

Cornerstone

My Blog, ASP.Net 2.0 etc

the head section is not responding to the runat server can you suggest anything ?

If I understood your question, open Solution Explorer and clique over root item (top most item). Then, in Properties Window, change the option Virtual path. I, usually, left just "/".