Question

I have an application that needs to get images that will not be part of the application it’s self. But stored on the file System. I have been told the best way to get this is to use a virtual directory rather than getting them staight off the file system like this

 public FilestreamResult GetPicture(string Filename) { 
    Filename = @"C:\SomePath\" + Filename;
        return new FileStreamResult(new FileStream(Filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read), "image/jpeg"));
}

Is it true using a virtual directory is the way to go instead of using the file path?
The next question is how do I create this virtual directory and how do I get the image from the virtual directory?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Using the method in your post has a bunch of overhead (all images pass through the .net application stack). If you plan on securing access to the images or need some other application level control then this can acceptable but if these are standard asset files then you will want to use a virtual directory.

You configure a virtual directory in IIS by right clicking the web site and selecting new virtual directory. You will give this directory a name such as “content” and then point it to your picture location (c:\somepath). You will then access the directory via http://yourwebsite.com/content/filename.jpg and it will appear as a part of your site.