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How to manipulate a url to access a parent directory

I have an asp.net web application that is being hosted on an internal network. In my testing environment of course it gets hosted out on localhost:01010/Views/page.aspx. now whenever I take it live the Url changes to server_name/folder 1/folder 2/views/page.aspx. what I am trying to do is get a new page to open up as server_name/folder 1/folder 2/Uploaded_Images/randomimage.png. Now I Can get the url, but as soon as I do a single ".Remove(url.lastindexof("/")+1)" it returns "server_name/folder 1/folder 2/Views". The I perform my second ".Remove(url.lastindexof("/")+1)"
and the it only returns "server_name/". I am ripping my hair out at this one and am hoping somewhere in the world a .net developer already has this built in. Appreciate all the help.
Also just to specify this is webforms and not mvc. also there is no ajax or page manipulation going on except for a response.write to open the new page.

You don't need the +1, this works:
var url = "server_name/folder 1/folder 2/views/page.aspx";
url = url.Remove(url.LastIndexOf("/"));
url = url.Remove(url.LastIndexOf("/"));
Or you could do it like this:
var parts = url.Split('/');
var newPath = string.Join("/", parts.Take(3));

I assume you are talking about URL's used as links to parts of your site and not physical paths on the file system.
In most cases, you should be able to use methods that construct paths on the fly. For example, in any of your .aspx files (or .aspx.cs files), you can use the ResolveUrl method, like this:
Some link
If there are any places where you need the full URL including the domain (like for email notifications or something like that) then what I have done is keep a static variable accessible to my whole application that gets set the first time Application_BeginRequest runs:
void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if (SiteRoot == null) {
SiteRoot = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.GetLeftPart(UriPartial.Authority) +
(VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~") == "/" ? "" : VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~"));
}
}
That will pull the full URL from the Request details (the URL that the user used to access your site), without any trailing slash.

Query String Parameter Being Lost on Request

i'm developing an MVC 4 web application.
I'm trying to make an url that changes in an authorized/unauthorized context.
I'm generating the following url for unauthorized user:
http://localhost/vendas-web/Login?ReturnUrl=%2Fvendas-web%2FClienteNovo%2FIndex%299999
The first time I've tested, it worked just fine.
But.. the second time I've tried, the query string got lost.. and the url turned into:
http://localhost/vendas-web/Login
When i test it against chrome on anonymous tab, it works FINE.
When i change the value of the last parameter, it works FINE.
There's some sort of cache related to this ?
What i'm doing wrong ?
Soo, my question is:
How do i keep my full url in any scenario ??
Ty

There's really not enough information here, but what you're likely talking about is that the first time a user needs to be authorized, they are automatically redirected to the first URL, which includes the ReturnUrl bit. That's built into the framework to allow the user to be redirected back to that URL after logging in. However, if you need to persist this past that initial first redirect to the login page, that's on you. Any links must manually add the query string param:
#Url.Action("SomeAction", new { ReturnUrl = Request["ReturnUrl"] })
And any forms must include it as a hidden input:
#Html.Hidden("ReturnUrl", Request["ReturnUrl"])
Otherwise, yes, it will be lost, because the literal URL you're now requesting doesn't include it. It's not just magically appended.

My problem was cache...
I've used this annotation to avoid using cache by application.
[OutputCache(NoStore = true, Duration = 0)]

How to retrieve site root url?

I need to get the url of the site so that I render a user control on only the main page. I need to check for http://foo.com, http://www.foo.com, and foo.com. I am a bit stumped as to how check for all 3. I tried the following which does not work.
string domainName = Request.Url.Host.ToString();
if (domainName == "http://nomorecocktails.com" | Request.Url.Host.Contains("default.aspx"))
{ //code to push user control to page
Also tried
var url = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.GetLeftPart(UriPartial.Authority) + "/";
Any thoughts?

You need to check if the Request.Path property is equal to / or /Default.aspx or whatever your "main page" is. The domain name is completely irrelevant. What if I accessed your site via http://192.56.17.205/, and similarly, what if your server switched IP addresses? Your domain check would fail.
If you utilize the QueryString to display different content, you'll also need to check Request.QueryString.
Documentation for Request.Path:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httprequest.path.aspx
Documentation for Request.QueryString:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httprequest.querystring.aspx

If you need the user control to only appear on the main page (I'm assuming you mean home page), then add the code to call the user control to the code behind of that file.
If this code is stored in the master page, then you can reference it like:
Master.FindControl("UserControlID");
If you are only using the one web form (ie. just Default.aspx), then you can check that no relevant query strings are included in the URL, and display only if this is the case:
if (Request.QueryString["q"] == null){
//user control code
}
However if you are using this technique then I would recommend using multiple web forms using master pages in the future to structure your application better.
The ASP.NET website has some good tutorials on how to do this:
http://www.asp.net/web-forms/tutorials/master-pages

Grabbing Cookies in Web Browser Control - WP7

In order to log into a certain part of a website the users of my application require their cookie. To do this I need to grab it and pass it to url.
Does anyone know how to grab a certain websites cookie from the browser control?
I saw this method but wasn't quite clear.
Thanks, TP.

As of WP 7.1 Mango "release", if one may call it, please see the WebBrowser Control Overview for Windows Phone. It has been recently updated a little bit, and it turns out that they actually have added some support for cookie-retrieval from the WebBrowser. On the bottom of the page you will find a tiny link GetCookies(WebBrowser) pointing to description of a new class: WebBrowserExtensions with this very handy method. Yes, this class has only that one single member. It's an extension method, I suppose no explanations needed on that.
I have not played with this method much, but it seems that this will allow you to access the very same thing as the JS trick: the cookieset for the current URL. It probably will not allow to set anything, nor to peek cookies for other URLs. Maybe if you play hard with the CookieContainer you will receive, but I doubt.
On the 7.0 release, I've been struggling quite hard to achieve "cookie transparency" for my App. Long story short, my app was doing some background HTTP requests, and also had a WebBrowser to show some online content -- and "it would be great" if both sources of connections would emit the same cookies to the server.. And guess what, my application had to make the first request, then let the browser navigate. With such requirements, there was virtually is no way to achieve consistency of the cookies - bah, even with the current new and glorious GetCookie method, I suppose it would be damn hard. So, to the point - it was possible, but needed to use some hidden API, that is present publicitly on the Phone, but is hidden in the SDK. The API is available the (public) class System.Net.Browser.WebRequestCreator, freely available. The quirk is: in the SDK this class has a single public static property "IWebRequestCreate ClientHttp" with a method "Create" that you can use to "factory" your "raw http" connections - in case you dont want to use the WebClient for some reason. On the phone, and on the emulator, there is a second public static property called "IWebRequestCreate BrowserHttp", easily returned by Reflection:
PropertyInfo brwhttp = typeof(System.Net.Browser.WebRequestCreator)
.GetProperty("BrowserHttp")
with this property, you will be able to obtain a "special" internal instance of IWebRequestCreate that is used internally by the WebBrowser. By opening your background HTTP requests with this class, you will get your cookies automatically set as if they were created/sent by the WebBrowser control, but in turn - you will NOT be able to modify http headers, userprovide http user authentication and neither do a few lowlevel things - because all that settings will be synced with the WebBrowser's data stored for current 'system user instance', if I'm allowed to call it as such on the single-user Phone device heh. The interoperation between connections and the WebBrowser works both ways - if your HTTP connection (created with use of the 'hidden property') receives any settings/cookies/etc -- then the WebBrowser will instantly notice them and update its own cache. No cookie/session loss on neither of the sides!
If you need to passively get cookies for your subsequent connections after some first WebBrowser navigation - please use the GetCookie or the JS way.
But if you need your code to be first, and then pass authz to the WebBrowser -- you will probably have to dig deeper and use the above.. It's been hidden, so please resort to the other means first!
..and don't ask me how did I found it or how much time it took :P
have a nice fun with it
//edit: I've just found out, that the BrowserHttp property is a normal Silverlight's way to access the Browser's connection factory, please see BrowserHttp. It seems that it is only has been hidden in the 'miniSilverlight' written for the WP7 platform!

The approach being described in the post you linked is to use the WebBrowser control's InvokeScript method to run some javascript. However the post appears to use a "cookies" collection which doesn't actually exist.
string cookie = myWebBrowser.InvokeScript("document.cookie") as string;
Now for the hard part the string you get contains all pertinent cookie name/value pairs for the page with the values still being Url encoded. You will need to parse the returned string for the value you need.
See document.cookie property documentation.
Edit:
Looking at it fresh instead of relying on the post, InvokeScript invokes named function on the window of the host browser. Hence the page being displayed in the WebBrowser would itself need to include a function like:-
function getCookie() { return document.cookie; }
Then the InvokeScript would look like:-
string cookie = myWebBrowser.InvokeScript("getCookie");

As #quetzalcoatl already suggested, you can use internal instance of WebRequestCreator to share cookies between browser instances and instances of WebRequest. You don't get to access the cookies directly though, I think that's just a security measure by Microsoft.
This code below creates a WebReqeust object, connected to CookieContainer of WebBrowser instance. It then posts to a url to log in the user and store cookies in the container.
After it's done, all browser instances within the app instance will have required set of cookies.
var browser = new WebBrowser();
var brwhttp = typeof (WebRequestCreator).GetProperty("BrowserHttp");
var requestFactory = brwhttp.GetValue(browser, null) as IWebRequestCreate;
var uri = new Uri("https://www.login.com/login-handler");
var req = requestFactory.Create(uri);
req.Method = "POST";
var postParams = new Dictionary<string, string> {
{"username", "turtlepower"},
{"password": "ZoMgPaSSw0Rd1"}
};
req.BeginGetRequestStream(aReq => {
var webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)aReq.AsyncState;
using (var postStream = webRequest.EndGetRequestStream(aReq)) {
// Build your POST request here
var postDataBuilder = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var pair in paramsDict) {
if (postDataBuilder.Length != 0) {
postDataBuilder.Append("&");
}
postDataBuilder.AppendFormat("{0}={1}", pair.Key, HttpUtility.UrlEncode(pair.Value));
}
var bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(postDataBuilder.ToString());
postStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
}
// Receive response
webRequest.BeginGetResponse(aResp => {
var webRequest2 = (HttpWebRequest) aResp.AsyncState;
webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)aResp.AsyncState;
string resp;
using (var response = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest2.EndGetResponse(aResp)) {
using (var streamResponse = response.GetResponseStream()) {
using (var streamReader = new System.IO.StreamReader(streamResponse)) {
resp = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}
}
}
}, webRequest);
}, req);
One of the issues I couldn't solve though was exceptions thrown when server returns 302 - it seems to throw WebException error with "Not found" description.

// Ensure this is set to true BEFORE navigating to the page
webBrowser1.IsScriptEnabled = true;
// Once the page has loaded, you can read the cookie string
string cookieString = webBrowser1.InvokeScript("eval", new string[] { "document.cookie;" }) as string;
The cookieString variable will contain the full cookie for the document. You can then parse the string.

There is an WebBrowser Extension class which is exactly developed for this:
CookieCollection tempCookies = Microsoft.Phone.Controls.WebBrowserExtensions.GetCookies(this.BrowserControl);

creating a cookie failing with safari, chrome, ie but working with FF

We are using the following code to create the security cookie. Everything works fine in Staging environment, however in the production environment the following code is unable to create a cookie in Safari, Chrome or IE but it does create a cookie successfully in Firefox. anything that you guys think i am missing or is wrong in here ?
public static void SetAuthenticationCookie(CustomIdentity identity)
{
ConfigSettings configSettings = ConfigHelper.GetConfigSettings();
string cookieName = configSettings.CookieName;
if (cookieName == null || cookieName.Trim() == String.Empty)
{
throw new Exception("CookieName entry not found in Web.config");
}
string cookieExpr = configSettings.CookieExpiration.ToString();
string encryptedUserDetails = Encrypt(identity);
HttpCookie userCookie = new HttpCookie(cookieName.ToUpper());
if (cookieExpr != null && cookieExpr.Trim() != String.Empty)
{
userCookie.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(int.Parse(cookieExpr));
}
userCookie.Values["UserDetails"] = encryptedUserDetails;
userCookie.Values["Culture"] = configSettings.Customer.Culture;
MyContext.Current.Response.Cookies.Add(userCookie);
}

Safari and IE8 don't accept third-party cookies by default.
When you call out to another domain using JSONP, every cookie set by that script will be blocked by Safari and IE8. There is nothing you can do about that (in IE8, you could add a P3P policy, but that doesn't work in Safari).
There are workarounds for maintaining state across JSONP calls, but it's pretty complicated (you'll have to manage state manually and use document.cookie in the called javascript)
As an alternative, you can ask your users to lower the privacy settings in their browser, but this isn't something worth considering IMHO.

did you check whether you have Web Developer add-on and disabled cookies? or disabled cookies inside of FF?

I've seen this issue related to the server having the incorrect UTC date/time. Firefox accepts regardless of the server date/time but other browsers won't set the cookie if the date/time is outside of a certain margin of error.