Server.MapPath Method

If you need to go to a file from your page, you may need to know the exact file path in order to access to it. In this case, you can use Server.MapPath method.

Server.MapPath method takes a path as a parameter and returns the physical path corresponding to the path.

For example, there is an xml file (database.xml) which stored a list of connection string is located in the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\webapplication1\database directory, and you need to get the connection string to connect to an appropriate database. The C:\inetpub\wwwroot directory is set as the web root directory.

The script uses the slash character to specify that the path returned should treated as a complete virtual path on the server and mapped from the root folder.

string path = Server.MapPath(“/webapplication1/database/database.xml”)

This script will output as the following:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\webapplication1\ database\database.xml

If the passed parameter does not start with a slash character, it will map to its current directory, in this case will be C:\inetpub\wwwroot\webapplication1.

string path = Server.MapPath(“database/database.xml”)

This will produce the same result.

Below are some tricks on Server.MapPath method.

' the current directory
currDir = Server.MapPath(".")

' the parent directory
parentDir = Server.MapPath("..")

' the application's root directory
rootDir = Server.MapPath("/")