ASP MVC setting defining images folder - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am a newbie in asp mvc, and would like to define links in views to image/content folder in a way so I don't have to change each link if a image folder changes.
Is is possible using ActionLink and routing, bundling or there is a better way to achieve this.
I could not find a good example anywhere so I did not try anything any coding far.
I am thinking of storing a fixed path somewhere, but is that really a mvc type solution?

Answer 1

There are a number of ways you could do this. Here's one approach to extend the Url.Content() method.
1. Create an extension method
We'll called it Virtual().
namespace TestApp.Extensions
{
public static class UrlHelperExtensions
{
private const string _settingPattern = "path:{0}";
private const string _regexPattern = #"\{\w+\}";
public static string Virtual(this UrlHelper helper, string url)
{
Regex r = new Regex(_regexPattern);
var matches = r.Matches(url);
if (matches.Count == 0) return url;
var sb = new StringBuilder(url);
var keys = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings.AllKeys;
foreach (var match in matches)
{
string key = match.ToString().TrimStart('{').TrimEnd('}');
string pattern = string.Format(_settingPattern, key);
foreach (var k in keys)
{
if (k == pattern)
{
sb.Replace(match.ToString(), WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get(k));
}
}
}
return helper.Content(sb.ToString());
}
}
}
2. Add settings to the main Web.config
Freely add any paths you want.
<add key="path:images" value="~/Content/images" />
<add key="path:scripts" value="~/scripts" />
3. Add the namespace to the Web.config of your views directory
<namespaces>
<add namespace="TestApp.Extensions"/>
</namespaces>
4. Use the new method
#Url.Virtual("{images}/mypic.png")
Output:
/Content/images/mypic.png
You can now use Virtual() where you would Content().
This solution is arguably excessive, but it is comprehensive.