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How to access a subfolder within a asp.net (C#) Project, WebApi

I have a seemingly basic question, but I can't access a folder inside my project (actually, it is a project that is one of the references of the main project), which is a folder called "pdfs" that contains 1 PDF that I want to convert to base64.
I put the "pdfs" folder in the same level of the file from where I call it, as I thought it would be easier to access (actionDB.cs file, which is in services/actions/actionDB.cs). The "pdfs" folder is in services/actions/pdfs).
But there is no way to get the correct path of this folder.
On the contrary, if I put the folder in c: , getting path = "c:\\pdfs", and the pdf file there, I can easily find it and convert the pdf perfectly in the code.
Any idea how to access these folders that are inside the projects, as if they were assets? I already put 'copy always: to the destination' and 'type of compilation: content' in the pdf properties, but I still can't access it.
I have already tried the following options:
string path = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), #"pdfs");
string path = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), #"services\actions\pdfs");
string path = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Environment.CurrentDirectory), #"services\actions\pdfs");
The namespace of the actionsDB is ProjectName.Data.services.actions.
I got results such as IIS/.., or other paths inside VS installation…, Assembly and some weird hashes.
Nothing works...
Could you help me with this?
Thank you very much,
CBD

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory is probably the most useful for accessing files whose location is relative to the application install directory.

How should i do to reference one file in my project, so when i publish the application, the file is generated in a specific folder?

the problem that i have with my application is about how to reference some files, when i load and image, etc, i use Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(AppContext.BaseDirectory, "..\\..\\..\\")); and this works fine for debugging and for some files, but doesn't work for some essential files, credentials.txt, config.ini, this files are searched in appdata when i run the published file and i don't know how i should reference them.
I try to generate some initial files so i am sure where they are and that they exists, but for folders that works great with
System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
with that i can make the folders where the app is run but you can't generate a file without load the content of the original file, and i don't know how to reference them.
Example:
Project.
Root of the project.
utils/key/credentials.txt
When the published file is executed i want to generate and store credentials.txt like this:
Executable (app.exe stored for example in "my documents")
"my documents"/utils/key/credentials.txt
how i do that? when i run the published application you just have the .exe, the dlls, and the resources are embebbed, so the uri doesn't works.

Assuming you have sufficient permissions, you could create a folder in the output folder of your compiled .exe at runtime using the Directory.CreateDirectory method.
If the utils/key/credentials.txt file is part of your deployment, you should set its Build Action to Content and the Copy to Output Directory property to Copy if newer in Visual Studio. This will add the utils and key folders to the output directory of the .exe, which is typically c:<project-folder\bin\Debug or \Release when you build from Visual Studio.
You can get the absolute path of the output directory like this:
string path = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName);
Depending on your requirements, you may then append the relative path of the file within your app to the absolute path.

How to move two folder back

I have file in my application on root directory.
When I'm using below code:
string startupPat = System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
It's taking also ...\bin\Debug\
How to move avoid this?

working code:
string test= File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(System.IO.Directory.GetCurrent‌​Directory(), "..\\..\\test.txt"));

\bin\Debug is the default folder your program will be compiled into. If you run your program from Visual Studio this will most likely be the current directory. Anyway, when you copy the program to another folder, the System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() should return that folder.
For your file you have to set copy to output directory to always in the properties in order to copy the file to where your program will be.
For all files that live in the same directory as your program does you do noth need any paths, you can just use the relative file names
var textReadFromFile = File.ReadAllText("myfile.txt");

C# console app: reference file without ..\..\filename

I need to read data from a file in a c# console application.
What works: new StreamReader(#"..\\..\myData.csv");
Problem:
the ..\\..\ work because my exe file is in the bin/Debug directory
When I deploy my project the path doesn't work any longer
Question:
How can I reference myData.csv regardless of the location of the exe file?
I had hoped to find a method that returns the 'root' of my console application
So far I tried the following:
Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName
Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location
Path.GetFullPath("bp.csv")
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
All of these expressions lead me to the directory of the exe file not the root.
I just started to read about isolated storage but it would be nice to have something simpler. Any suggestions / recommendations?

The simplest option is probably to add your CSV file to the solution and right-click it in VS and set the build action to "Copy if newer", which will output it together with the .exe (to the Debug or Release folder) when you build.
In the code, you can get the current location of the executing assembly like this:
string folder = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
And then you can combine the path with the CSV file name:
string filePath = Path.Combine(folder, "myData.csv");

Where your myData.csv will be stored ? You should have an absolute location of this file.
there are couple of options
You can place this file at the same directory where your exe is placed so you will only need to do
new StreamReader("myData.csv");
you can define file location in the App.Conig file and read that location.
you can set a path variable an read the PATH variable.

You should change your code to
new StreamReader("myData.csv");
This will ensure that the data is always read from the same folder the .exe is run from.
After that, you can create a post build step to copy the file to the deployment folder (or a subfolder) so that even in your debug environment the file will be in the correct place. The property "Copy to Output Folder" on the data file will do this as well if you just need the file to be in the output path for a project.
If you need more control, n the post build steps you can use macros like $(ProjectPath) to reference where the project files are located and $(TargetDir) to reference where the output directory will be.

Hard Coded Paths in a .NET Program

I am developing an application in C#. I have a folder called myfolder it contains a file called mypoints.bmp. The folder myfolder is in my project folder it is in D drive. The path is D:\Myproject\myfolder\mypoints.bmp.
Now, in my program, whereever I need mypoints.bmp I have hardcoded the whole path. When my project is copied in to a different system under C drive, I am not able to run my project because of the hardcoded path. How can I give the path so that there will not be any problem even if it is loaded in to a different system under a different drive.

The best would be to store the path in a configuration file.
Add -> New Item -> Application Configuration File
Then you can use the following class to pull the value you're looking for:
System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager
Have a look here on the usage.

If the images you are referring to are non-changing and are simply acting as a resource for your application then you could consider embedding them in resource files which are compiled as part of your assembly. That way you need never worry about paths or copying them.

If the BMP file is used in the code and is accessed in runtime, there is no point in keeping it just in the project directory. it should be also present in the outputdirectory.
i.e you could write a post-build command to copy your folder to the output directory.
like copy "$(ProjectDir)\MyFolder\*.*" "$(OutDir)"
then in the code you could just write the relative path i.e "MyFolder\MyPoints.bmp"
But please remember one thing. If this BMP file is not going to change through out your program execution, it is better that you put it as a resource.

You can use something like GetCurrentPath(), which will return your .exe file path, then add to this path your \myfolder\mypoints.bmp. This will not be depend on C or D or ... drive and folder

There is one path that you can always reliably find, no matter how your program got deployed to the target machine: the directory in which your .exe is stored.
Take advantage of this, put the .bmp file in the same directory. Or a subdirectory of the install directory. You didn't say what kind of program you wrote, it is easy with Application.ExecutablePath in Windows Forms. But the generic solution that works everywhere:
public static string GetImagePath(string filename) {
string exeFile = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location;
string exePath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(exeFile);
string imgPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(exePath, #"images");
string imgFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(imgPath, filename);
return imgFile;
}
Which assumes the images are stored in a subdirectory named "images". Tweak as necessary.
Last but not least: don't forget that you can add images to your program's resources so it is baked in the .exe file. Project + Properties, Resources tab. Highly recommended.

You can also use predefined or existed system variable. Anyway you must decide when the user (or you) have to define that path (in config file or wherever) - during instalaltion, first run, before first run or in any time when app is running.

Personally I would use the Environment class in C#. Then I will locate the local app settings folder using the Environment.SpecialFolder enum.
I will then store all my applications specific files inside a folder in the local app settings folder.
This way you are also UAC safe, since UAC will complain if you want to store files in Program Files if you are not Administrator.