Question

I have a user control that contains a GridView. The GridView has both a HyperLinkField column and a template column that contains a HyperLink control.

The ASP.NET project is structured as follows, with the Default.aspx page in each case using the user control.

• Application Root
  • Controls
    • UserControl with GridView
  • SystemAdminFolder
    • Default.aspx
    • Edit.aspx
  • OrganisationAdminFolder
    • Default.aspx
    • Edit.aspx
  • StandardUserFolder
    • Default.aspx
    • Edit.aspx

Note: The folders are being used to ensure the user has the correct role.

I need to be able to set the DataNavigateUrlFormatString for the HyperLinkField and the NavigateUrl for the HyperLink to resolve to the Edit.aspx page in the corresponding folder.

If I set the navigate URL to “Edit.aspx” the URL in the browser appears as
‘http://Application Root/Controls/Edit.aspx’ regardless of the originating directory.

I can’t use the Web application root operator (~/) as the path needs to be relative to the current page, not the application root.

How can I use the same user control in multiple folders and resolve the URL to another page in the same folder?

Note: The question is strongly based off a similar question by azhar2000s on the asp.net forums that matches my problem.

Answer 1

While typing up this question I came across one possible solution and have further modified this using feedback from @Thomas.

Changing Control.AppRelativeTemplateSourceDirectory alters the relative paths produced by the control. I’ve set it to a root relative virtual path for the current requests folder. Now any relative paths in the UserControl with be relative to the requested page rather than the user controls path.

//Page Load Event for the User Control
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string rootPath = HttpContext.Current.Request.ApplicationPath;
    if (!rootPath.EndsWith("/"))
    {
        rootPath += "/";
    }

    Uri requestUri = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url;
    string folderPath = requestUri.AbsolutePath.Remove(0, rootPath.Length);
    string lastSegment = requestUri.Segments[requestUri.Segments.Length - 1];
    folderPath = folderPath.Remove(folderPath.LastIndexOf(lastSegment));

    AppRelativeTemplateSourceDirectory = "~/" + folderPath;
}