How to read a file from a folder in _Layouts?

Question

I have a file that is in a the mapped folder "Layouts" in my Visual Studio project. I would like to read the contents of this file but I have been having some trouble accessing it. What I have tried:

        SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;
        XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(web.Url + "/_layouts/MyPoject/data.xml");
        reader.Read();

But when i get to the reader.Read(); link it throws a 404 error. Is there a different way that I should be accessing this file?

Answer 1

Since your file in _layouts directory, why not to use GetGenericSetupPath method? Something like this:

var path = SPUtility.GetGenericSetupPath(@"TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\MyPoject\data.xml");

UPD:

This method is obsolete in SharePoint 2013, you should use GetCurrentGenericSetupPath or GetVersionedGenericSetupPath

Thanks for noticing that fact in comments.

Answer 2

Basically, you need to pass your default credentials for this to work.

Check this post where a text file is read from a layouts folder. I believe you are having similar issue.

Answer 3

Since you are putting the file in layouts, can I assume this is a file that going to remain static, and not be edited?

If that is the case you might like to try an alternative method, and that is to take advantage of the .NET resource framework.

Rather than put the xml file in the layouts folder, create a resources file in your VS project (eg Strings.resx)

Open the file and from the designer, select files from the top-left dropdown.

Drag and drop your xml file onto the designer. You now have the ability to access the content of the file as a string by simply using object.property form, for example

string xmlcontent = Strings.XmlFile1;

Once you have the xml in a string variable, you can do what you like with it eg load into and XmlDocument object.

Hope that makes sense.

Answer 4

Try getting it via webrequest:

WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url);
request.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();

XmlTextReader = new XmlTextReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
reader.Read();

Remember disposing ;)

Answer 5

This works for me:

string path = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(xslFileUrl);           
return File.ReadAllText(path);