Question

Visual Studio 2012 – ASP.net – MVC 4

I am having troubles displaying an image from a server path which is stored in a database.

I am using HttpPostedFileBase to retrieve the file the user has uploaded:

using (var uow = _db.CreateUnitOfWork())
            {
                if (imageUpload != null && imageUpload.ContentLength > 0)
                {
                    var fileName = Path.GetRandomFileName() + Path.GetExtension(imageUpload.FileName);
                    var path = Path.Combine(System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/Uploads"), fileName);
                    imageUpload.SaveAs(path);
                    achievement.ImageLoc = path;
                }

                uow.Add(achievement);
                Save(uow);
                return true;
            }

This will save the absolute path of the uploaded file into the database and save the file onto the server. When I try to retrieve this path to display an image file in a view all I get is a blank square like the file is not being found (about:blank when right click -> copy image url). I know the path is correct because I am using it in a different view to allow users to download files, which is working correctly. Also I am allowing the user to edit the file which successfully deletes the old and uploads a new one. The only problem I am having is displaying an image in a view.

I have tried:

<img src="@Html.Encode(Model.ImageLoc)" />
<img src=@Url.Content(Model.ImageLoc)" />

Would anyone be able to suggest anything?

Answer 1

You have stored the absolute path to the image in your database, but you need to reference it with the relative path:

<img src="@Url.Content("~/Uploads/" + System.IO.Path.GetFileName(Model.ImageLoc))" alt="" />

The resulting HTML must look like this:

<img src="/Uploads/tccxdfu0.nde.jpg" alt="" />

and not:

<img src="\\PDC2\sites\t\<site.co.uk>\public_html\Uploads\tccxdfu0.nde.jpg" alt="" />

because the client cannot access such folders from the server.