In Visual Studio C#, is there a way to apply Web Config Transforms to Javascript files?

Question

In Visual Studio, I have some Javascript code on a site I'm developing. While I'm debugging I'm using the $ajax call to "localhost". When deployed, it will need to be the actual server:

$('#textInput_UserName').focusout(function () {
    var _username = $('#textInput_UserName').val();
    $.ajax({
        url: 'http://localhost:8809/Account/UserNameExists/',
        data: { username: _username },
        dataType: 'html',
});

When I publish, I need to transform that localhost to the actual domain:

$('#textInput_UserName').focusout(function () {
    var _username = $('#textInput_UserName').val();
    $.ajax({
        url: 'http://www.mydomain.com/Account/UserNameExists/',
        data: { username: _username },
        dataType: 'html',
});

Is there an easy/automatic way to do this, similar to the way Web Config transforms work?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

You don't, you just omit the host, the browser will fill this in for you, like this:

$('#textInput_UserName').focusout(function () {
    var _username = $('#textInput_UserName').val();
    $.ajax({
        url: '/Account/UserNameExists/',
        data: { username: _username },
        dataType: 'html',
});

If you're actually talking about x-domain requests, which I doubt you are, then just set a global js site variable.

Answer 2

I recommend you to use this:

url: '<%= ResolveClientUrl("~/Account/UserNameExists/")',

If you do it this way you'll avoid problems if you:

• install the app in a virtual directory instead of the domain root
• move your page to a different directory level in your app
• use your service from a master page or user control, which can be instantiated in different pages, an thus directory levels

You can also expose a public property in your page/user control/master page, and use it from code in the same way, i.e:

• code in the page/uc/master: public string ServiceUrl { get { return ResolveClientUrl("~/Account/UserNameExists/");}
• code in .aspx: url: '<%= ServiceUrl',

Answer 3

Are you making a call to a web service or what is the destination of this url? When I am working with ajax calls in my web applications I usually set up the methods inside of a web service and call them like this:

 $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "../Services/BookingService.asmx/GetVerifiedReservations",
        data: paramsJson,
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        dataType: "json",
        async: false,
        success: function (response) {
            invalidDays = $.parseJSON(response.d);
        },
        error: function (xhr, textStatus, thrownError) {
            alert(textStatus);
            alert(thrownError);
        }
    });

As you can see the path is relative to the rest of the files in your domain.