Question

I’ve read many articles about relative/absolute paths, but I still can’t grok this problem.

The following code is from my ASP.NET Master page:

<li><a>Reports</a>
    <ul>
        <li>
            <a href="/Reports/One.aspx">One</a>
        </li>
        <li>
            <a href="~/Reports/Two.aspx">Two</a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</li>

(Note that one link has a ~ and one doesn’t.)

When running the site, the first link points to http://server/Reports/One.aspx, and the second link points to http://server/company/project/Reports/~/Reports/Two.aspx.

How do I get to the root of my ASP.NET project without it ignoring whatever virtual directories are set up on IIS?

Answer 1

Add runat="server" attribute to the anchor tag. You can’t use the ~ root operator with HTML tags. Only the server controls (Html or Web) can use it.

<a runat="server" href="~/Reports/Two.aspx">Two</a>