path mapping using "~"

[Zarcom]

Hey guys got a simple question here. I downloaded the asp.net portal sample from

http://www.asp.net.

In the sample the paths to the different controls and pictures all seem to be declare using a ~ like so "~/images/image.gif" Looking at the directory structure I surmised that this goes up a level and then follows the path from there. I was wondering then what the diffence between "~" and ".." is.
Thanks for your time That'l do donkey, that'l do
Mark
If you are unsure of forum etiquette check here faq796-2540

 

[rveer]

The ~ is a reference to the virtual root of the web application.

In contract, / marks the root of the website.

So if you have a website named

http://www.mysite.com,

it doesn't matter if you use ~/images/image.gif or just /images/image.gif.

However, If your web has subsites, e.g.

http://www.mysite.com/whatever,

and you have a web.config in

http://www.mysite.com/whatever/web.config

(and you have defined whatever as a web application), the ~/images/image.gif resolves to

http://www.mysite.com/whatever/images/image.gif.

The ~ is very handy if you happen to have multiple projects on your site. As long as you use ~ in the paths of your web controls (it doesn't work in plain html, unfortunately), you can easily move your application from a subapplication to a production server (where the whatever app get deployed to

http://www.whatever.com).

Again, it is just a reference to your application root.