Route images in View folder in Asp.Net MVC 3

Question

I tried asking this question a bit differently before, but it wasn't understood, so I'll try another way:

I have an MVC 3 application where I have views in the Views directory as usual. However, for various reasons I need the images for each view to be in the same folder as the view itself, i.e. in my case e.g. Views/Manuals/en-US/name

Here's the route I use:

routes.MapRoute(
                "Parameter",
                "{controller}/{action}/{lang}/{prod}",
                new { controller = "Manuals", action = "Product", lang = "en-US", prod = "name" }
        );

Now, as mentioned, I need the images for this view to be in the same folder, so that the image path can simply be "ATEXSymbol.svg".

When I just have this route, and use a simple relative path like this for the image, what I get is an error like this:

The view 'da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations. The following locations were searched: ~/Views/Manuals/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.aspx ~/Views/Manuals/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.ascx ~/Views/Shared/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.aspx ~/Views/Shared/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.ascx ~/Views/Manuals/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.cshtml ~/Views/Manuals/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.vbhtml ~/Views/Shared/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.cshtml ~/Views/Shared/da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg.vbhtml

So basically, it's looking for the image in the correct language folder, but without the product name folder part, and with one of a number of view extensions appended. I know MVC doesn't really expect this relative path in the same folder, but I pretty much don't have any choice. I'm required to put images in the same folder for purposes out of my hands.

So how can I achieve this?

EDIT:

Actually, I was mistaken a bit above, saying that the product name part of the path was missing, of course it isn't. That part of the path is the name of the view itself. So basically the path I get by a simple relative path (just the name of the image file) in the src attribute creates the correct path for the image. The only problem is that the view file extension is added...

Anyone know how to solve this?

EDIT 2:

BTW, I could have used Url.Content, but for some reason that doesn't work either. If I use this:

<embed  type="image/svg+xml" src="@Url.Content("~/Content/images/da-DK/3153/CheckRotation.svg")"></embed>

...it works...but if I use this (same thing but with the image in the Views folder)...

<embed  type="image/svg+xml" src="@Url.Content("~/Views/Manuals/da-DK/CheckRotation.svg")"></embed>

...it doesn't work. If I inspect the path in the latter example in the web inspector, it looks like the correct path (localhost:49864/Views/Manuals/da-DK/CheckRotation.svg) but with the message that it cannot be found.

EDIT 3:

The answer by Thinking Sites gave me a solution, I just had to modify it a bit, since I needed the route suggested for the views themselves. So I added this route:

routes.MapRoute(
                "Image",
                "{controller}/{action}/{lang}/{prod}",
                new { controller = "Manuals", action = "Image", lang = "en-US", prod = "name" }
        );

I made a slight adjustment in the path (as suggested), since the prod now actually carries the entire filename, including extension:

public ActionResult Image(string lang, string prod)
        {
            var root = Server.MapPath("~/Views/Manuals/");
            var filepath = Path.Combine(root, lang, prod); // whatever creates your path here.
            return File(filepath, "image/svg+xml");
        }

And then in the view I can have paths like this:

<embed  type="image/svg+xml" src="@Url.Content("/Manuals/Image/da-DK/CheckRotation.svg")"></embed>

Answer 1

Using this route:

routes.MapRoute(
                "Parameter",
                "{controller}/{action}/{lang}/{prod}",
                new { controller = "Manuals", action = "Product", lang = "en-US", prod = "name" }
        );

Create this action in your controller ManualsController

public ActionResult Product(string lang,string prod){
   var root = Server.MapPath("~/views/manuals/");
   var filepath = Path.Combine(root,lang,prod,".svg"); // whatever creates your path here.
   return File(filepath ,"your mime type");
}

No need for a custom view engine. The FileResult is designed for just this occasion.

Answer 2

Maybe the answer to your question is in your error:

The view 'da-DK/ATEXSymbol.svg' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations.

Have you thought about plugging in a custom view engine?

I have never created one myself & can't offer guidance, so this is an incomplete answer (I can delete later depending on comments). It's an interesting problem though, and so far as I can tell a unique one. I wonder who would dictate that items be "dumped in en masse" for a framework that doesn't work that way by convention. Pretty straightforward if you were working with web forms though.