Microsoft Web API: How do you do a Server.MapPath? - asp.net-web-api

Question

Since Microsoft Web API isn't MVC, you cannot do something like this:
var a = Request.MapPath("~");
nor this
var b = Server.MapPath("~");
because these are under the System.Web namespace, not the System.Web.Http namespace.
So how do you figure out the relative server path in Web API ? I used to do something like this in MVC:
var myFile = Request.MapPath("~/Content/pics/" + filename);
Which would give me the absolute path on disk:
"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\myWebFolder\Content\pics\mypic.jpg"

Answer 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?

Answer 2

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

Answer 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.

Answer 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.

Answer 5

Since Server.MapPath() does not exist within a Web Api (Soap or REST), you'll need to denote the local- relative to the web server's context- home directory. The easiest way to do so is with:
string AppContext.BaseDirectory { get;}
You can then use this to concatenate a path string to map the relative path to any file.
NOTE: string paths are \ and not / like they are in mvc.
Ex:
System.IO.File.Exists($"{**AppContext.BaseDirectory**}\\\\Content\\\\pics\\\\{filename}");
returns true- positing that this is a sound path in your example

Answer 6

Little bit late answering that but there we go.
I could solve this using Environment.CurrentDirectory

Answer 7

The selected answer did not work in my Web API application. I had to use
System.Web.HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppPath

Answer 8

You can try like:
var path="~/Image/test.png";
System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.MapPath( # + path)