asp.net: refer to a page relative to root in normal non-server-side html controls

Question

I've a page that is deeply nested. And one that is in the root path. Inside of the deeply nested page I have an anchor tag which is supposed to navigate to another page (which is not in the root, but it is easy to specify a root relative path).

I've done the following trying to specify a root relative path:

<a href="~/home/main.aspx">Home</a> -> This one gives me a 404 error. It is not able to resolve ~ part to the root path.

The other option is to travel one directory up:

<a href="../../../home/main.aspx">Home</a> -> This is headache.

Then I tried this:

<a href="/home/main.aspx">Home</a> -> This gave me a 404 again. It simply removed what came after the localhost:<port_number>/ part and affixed it with /home/main.aspx.

What is the way to specify a root relative path here?

PS: I assume the root relative path will resolve for server controls

Answer 1

If you use the asp.net hyperlink control you will be able to use the '~'. If you don't want to use a servercontrol I think your stuck.

'/' will take you to the root of the site on a regular link but you have to check how you have the virtual directory is set up.

Answer 2

A tilde (~) is only recognized by the WebControl.ResolveUrl method, so you will have to invoke this method on the Page, which is a WebControl

<a href='<%=ResolveUrl("~/home/main.aspx") %>'>Home</a>