MVC4 StyleBundle not resolving images

Question

My question is similar to this      ASP NET MVC 4 Minification  amp  Background Images   Except that I want to stick with MVC s own bundling if I can  I m having a brain crash trying to figure out what the correct pattern is for specifying style bundles such that standalone css and image sets such as jQuery UI work   I have a typical MVC site structure with  Content css  which contains my base CSS such as styles css  Within that css folder I also have subfolders such as  jquery-ui which contains its CSS file plus an  images folder  Image paths in the jQuery UI CSS are relative to that folder and I don t want to mess with them   As I understand it  when I specify a StyleBundle I need to specify a virtual path which does not also match a real content path  because  assuming I m ignoring routes to Content  IIS would then try to resolve that path as a physical file  So I m specifying   bundles Add new StyleBundle    Content styles jquery-ui           Include    Content css jquery-ui   css       rendered using    Styles Render    Content styles jquery-ui     I can see the request going out to   http   localhost MySite Content styles jquery-ui v nL 6HPFtzoqrts9nwrtjq0VQFYnhMjY5EopXsK8cxmg1   This is returning the correct  minified CSS response   But then the browser sends a request for a relatively linked image as   http   localhost MySite Content styles images ui-bg highlight-soft 100 eeeeee 1x100 png   Which is a 404   I understand that the last part of my URL jquery-ui is an extensionless URL  a handler for my bundle  so I can see why the relative request for the image is simply  styles images     So my question is what is the correct way of handling this situation

User · Answer

I found that CssRewriteUrlTransform fails to run if you're referencing a *.css file and you have the associated *.min.css file in the same folder.

To fix this, either delete the *.min.css file or reference it directly in your bundle:

bundles.Add(new Bundle("~/bundles/bootstrap")
    .Include("~/Libs/bootstrap3/css/bootstrap.min.css", new CssRewriteUrlTransform()));

After that you do that, your URLs will be transformed correctly and your images should be correctly resolved.

User · Answer

You can simply add another level of depth to your virtual bundle path        Two levels deep bundle path so that paths are maintained after minification     bundles Add new StyleBundle    Content css css   Include    Content bootstrap bootstrap css      Content site css       This is a super low-tech answer and kind of a hack but it works and won t require any pre-processing   Given the length and complexity of some of these answers I prefer doing it this way

User · Answer

Grinn   ThePirat solution works well    I did not like that it new d the Include method on bundle  and that it created temporary files in the content directory    they ended up getting checked in  deployed  then the service wouldn t start    So to follow the design of Bundling  I elected to perform essentially the same code  but in an IBundleTransform implementation    class StyleRelativePathTransform       IBundleTransform       public StyleRelativePathTransform                    public void Process BundleContext context  BundleResponse response                response Content   String Empty           Regex pattern   new Regex   url s    s                  1 s      RegexOptions IgnoreCase              open each of the files         foreach  FileInfo cssFileInfo in response Files                        if  cssFileInfo Exists                                   apply the RegEx to the file  to change relative paths                  string contents   File ReadAllText cssFileInfo FullName                   MatchCollection matches   pattern Matches contents                      Ignore the file if no match                  if  matches Count  gt  0                                        string cssFilePath   cssFileInfo DirectoryName                      string cssVirtualPath   context HttpContext RelativeFromAbsolutePath cssFilePath                       foreach  Match match in matches                                                   this is a path that is relative to the CSS file                         string relativeToCSS   match Groups 2  Value                             combine the relative path to the cssAbsolute                         string absoluteToUrl   Path GetFullPath Path Combine cssFilePath  relativeToCSS                                make this server relative                         string serverRelativeUrl   context HttpContext RelativeFromAbsolutePath absoluteToUrl                            string quote   match Groups 1  Value                          string replace   String Format  url  0  1  0     quote  serverRelativeUrl                           contents   contents Replace match Groups 0  Value  replace                                                              copy the result into the response                  response Content   String Format   0  r n 1    response Content  contents                                     And then wrapped this up in a Bundle Implemetation   public class StyleImagePathBundle        Bundle       public StyleImagePathBundle string virtualPath            base virtualPath                base Transforms Add new StyleRelativePathTransform             base Transforms Add new CssMinify                public StyleImagePathBundle string virtualPath  string cdnPath            base virtualPath  cdnPath                base Transforms Add new StyleRelativePathTransform             base Transforms Add new CssMinify               Sample Usage   static void RegisterBundles BundleCollection bundles            bundles Add new StyleImagePathBundle    bundles Bootstrap                Include                     Content css bootstrap css                      Content css bootstrap-responsive css                      Content css jquery fancybox css                      Content css style css                      Content css error css                      Content validation css                    Here is my extension method for RelativeFromAbsolutePath      public static string RelativeFromAbsolutePath this HttpContextBase context  string path                var request   context Request          var applicationPath   request PhysicalApplicationPath          var virtualDir   request ApplicationPath          virtualDir   virtualDir          virtualDir    virtualDir                 return path Replace applicationPath  virtualDir  Replace

User · Answer

After little investigation I concluded the followings  You have 2 options    go with transformations  Very usefull package for this  https   bundletransformer codeplex com  you need following transformation for every problematic bundle   BundleResolver Current   new CustomBundleResolver    var cssTransformer   new StyleTransformer    standardCssBundle Transforms Add cssTransformer   bundles Add standardCssBundle      Advantages  of this solution  you can name your bundle whatever you want    you can combine css files into one bundle from different directories   Disadvantages  You need to transform every problematic bundle   Use the same relative root for the name of the bundle like where the css file is located  Advantages  there is no need for transformation   Disadvantages  You have limitation on combining css sheets from different directories into one bundle

User · Answer

According to this thread on MVC4 css bundling and image references  if you define your bundle as   bundles Add new StyleBundle    Content css jquery-ui bundle                       Include    Content css jquery-ui   css       Where you define the bundle on the same path as the source files that made up the bundle  the relative image paths will still work  The last part of the bundle path is really the file name for that specific bundle  i e    bundle can be any name you like    This will only work if you are bundling together CSS from the same folder  which I think makes sense from a bundling perspective    Update  As per the comment below by  Hao Kung  alternatively this may now be achieved by applying a CssRewriteUrlTransformation  Change relative URL references to CSS files when bundled     NOTE  I have not confirmed comments regarding issues with rewriting to absolute paths within a virtual directory  so this may not work for everyone       bundles Add new StyleBundle    Content css jquery-ui bundle                       Include    Content css jquery-ui   css                       new CssRewriteUrlTransform

User · Answer

As of v1 1 0-alpha1  pre release package  the framework uses the VirtualPathProvider to access files rather than touching the physical file system   The updated transformer can be seen below   public class StyleRelativePathTransform       IBundleTransform       public void Process BundleContext context  BundleResponse response                Regex pattern   new Regex   url s    s                  1 s      RegexOptions IgnoreCase            response Content   string Empty              open each of the files         foreach  var file in response Files                        using  var reader   new StreamReader file Open                                   var contents   reader ReadToEnd                        apply the RegEx to the file  to change relative paths                  var matches   pattern Matches contents                    if  matches Count  gt  0                                        var directoryPath   VirtualPathUtility GetDirectory file VirtualPath                        foreach  Match match in matches                                                   this is a path that is relative to the CSS file                         var imageRelativePath   match Groups 2  Value                              get the image virtual path                         var imageVirtualPath   VirtualPathUtility Combine directoryPath  imageRelativePath                               convert the image virtual path to absolute                         var quote   match Groups 1  Value                          var replace   String Format  url  0  1  0     quote  VirtualPathUtility ToAbsolute imageVirtualPath                            contents   contents Replace match Groups 0  Value  replace                                                               copy the result into the response                  response Content   String Format   0  r n 1    response Content  contents

User · Answer

Maybe I am biased  but I quite like my solution as it doesn t do any transforming  regex s etc and it s has the least amount of code     This works for a site hosted as a Virtual Directory in a IIS Web Site and as a root website on IIS  So I created an Implentation of IItemTransform encapsulated the CssRewriteUrlTransform and used VirtualPathUtility to fix the path and call the existing code        lt summary gt      Is a wrapper class over CssRewriteUrlTransform to fix url s in css files for sites on IIS within Virutal Directories     and sites at the Root level      lt  summary gt  public class CssUrlTransformWrapper   IItemTransform       private readonly CssRewriteUrlTransform  cssRewriteUrlTransform       public CssUrlTransformWrapper                  cssRewriteUrlTransform   new CssRewriteUrlTransform               public string Process string includedVirtualPath  string input                return  cssRewriteUrlTransform Process       VirtualPathUtility ToAbsolute includedVirtualPath   input               App Start cs public static void Start           BundleTable Bundles Add new StyleBundle    bundles fontawesome                             Include    content font-awesome css   new CssUrlTransformWrapper          Seems to work fine for me

User · Answer

It is not necessary to specify a transform or have crazy subdirectory paths  After much troubleshooting I isolated it to this  simple  rule  is it a bug       If your bundle path does not start with relative root of the items being included  then the web application root will not be taken into account   Sounds like more of a bug to me  but anyway that s how you fix it with the current  NET 4 51 version  Perhaps the other answers were necessary on older ASP NET builds  can t say don t have time to retrospectively test all that   To clarify  here is an example   I have these files       Content Images Backgrounds Some Background Tile gif   Content Site css  - references the background image relatively  i e  background  url  Images         Then setup the bundle like     BundleTable Add new StyleBundle    Bundles Styles   Include    Content Site css       And render it like      Styles Render    Bundles Styles     And get the  behaviour   bug   the CSS files themselves have the application root  e g   http   localhost 1234 MySite Content Site css   but the CSS image within all start   Content Images      or   Images      depending on whether I add the transform or not   Even tried creating the  Bundles  folder to see if it was to do with the path existing or not  but that didn t change anything  The solution to the problem is really the requirement that the name of the bundle must start with the path root   Meaning this example is fixed by registering and rendering the bundle path like    BundleTable Add new StyleBundle    Content StylesBundle   Include    Content Site css          Styles Render    Content StylesBundle     So of course you could say this is RTFM  but I am quite sure me and others picked-up this    Bundles      path from the default template or somewhere in documentation at MSDN or ASP NET web site  or just stumbled upon it because actually it s a quite logical name for a virtual path and makes sense to choose such virtual paths which do not conflict with real directories   Anyway  that s the way it is  Microsoft see no bug  I don t agree with this  either it should work as expected or some exception should be thrown  or an additional override to adding the bundle path which opts to include the application root or not  I can t imagine why anyone would not want the application root included when there was one  normally unless you installed your web site with a DNS alias default web site root   So actually that should be the default anyway

User · Answer

Although Chris Baxter s answer helps with original problem  it doesn t work in my case when application is hosted in virtual directory  After investigating the options  I finished with DIY solution   ProperStyleBundle class includes code borrowed from original CssRewriteUrlTransform to properly transform relative paths within virtual directory  It also throws if file doesn t exist and prevents reordering of files in the bundle  code taken from BetterStyleBundle    using System  using System Collections Generic  using System IO  using System Text RegularExpressions  using System Web  using System Web Optimization  using System Linq   namespace MyNamespace       public class ProperStyleBundle   StyleBundle               public override IBundleOrderer Orderer                       get   return new NonOrderingBundleOrderer                  set   throw new Exception   Unable to override Non-Ordered bundler                          public ProperStyleBundle  string virtualPath     base  virtualPath               public ProperStyleBundle  string virtualPath  string cdnPath     base  virtualPath  cdnPath               public override Bundle Include  params string   virtualPaths                         foreach   var virtualPath in virtualPaths                     this Include  virtualPath                              return this                     public override Bundle Include  string virtualPath  params IItemTransform   transforms                         var realPath   System Web Hosting HostingEnvironment MapPath  virtualPath                if   File Exists  realPath                                   throw new FileNotFoundException   Virtual path not found      virtualPath                              var trans   new List lt IItemTransform gt   transforms   Union  new     new ProperCssRewriteUrlTransform  virtualPath       ToArray                return base Include  virtualPath  trans                          This provides files in the same order as they have been added           private class NonOrderingBundleOrderer   IBundleOrderer                       public IEnumerable lt BundleFile gt  OrderFiles  BundleContext context  IEnumerable lt BundleFile gt  files                                 return files                                   private class ProperCssRewriteUrlTransform   IItemTransform                       private readonly string  basePath               public ProperCssRewriteUrlTransform  string basePath                                  basePath   basePath EndsWith          basePath   VirtualPathUtility GetDirectory  basePath                               public string Process  string includedVirtualPath  string input                                 if   includedVirtualPath    null                         throw new ArgumentNullException   includedVirtualPath                                       return ConvertUrlsToAbsolute   basePath  input                               private static string RebaseUrlToAbsolute  string baseUrl  string url                                 if   string IsNullOrWhiteSpace  url                           string IsNullOrWhiteSpace  baseUrl                           url StartsWith       StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase                           url StartsWith   data    StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase                                               return url                                    if    baseUrl EndsWith       StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase                           baseUrl   baseUrl                                          return VirtualPathUtility ToAbsolute  baseUrl   url                               private static string ConvertUrlsToAbsolute  string baseUrl  string content                                 if   string IsNullOrWhiteSpace  content                           return content                                    return new Regex   url            lt url gt                                          Replace  content    match   gt                                            url     RebaseUrlToAbsolute  baseUrl  match Groups  url   Value                                                Use it like StyleBundle   bundles Add  new ProperStyleBundle     styles ui         Include     Content Themes cm default style css         Include     Content themes custom-theme jquery-ui-1 8 23 custom css         Include     Content DataTables-1 9 4 media css jquery dataTables css         Include     Content DataTables-1 9 4 extras TableTools media css TableTools css

User · Answer

I had this problem with bundles having incorrect path s to images and CssRewriteUrlTransform not resolving relative parent paths    correctly  there was also problem with external resources like webfonts   That s why I wrote this custom transform  appears to do all of the above correctly    public class CssRewriteUrlTransform2   IItemTransform       public string Process string includedVirtualPath  string input                var pathParts   includedVirtualPath Replace            Split               pathParts   pathParts Take pathParts Count   - 1  ToArray            return Regex Replace                       input                 url                                                      m   gt                                    Somehow assigning this to a variable is faster than directly returning the output                 var output                                            Check if it s an aboslute url or base64                     m Groups 3  Value IndexOf         -1                                                 m Groups 1  Value                                                                                                                                 m Groups 2  Value Length  gt  0                                         m Groups 3  Value StartsWith                                                                                                    string Join      pathParts Take pathParts Count   - m Groups 2  Value Count                                                                                                m Groups 3  Value StartsWith              m Groups 3  Value   m Groups 3  Value                            m Groups 4  Value                                             m Groups 0  Value                                    return output                                     Edit  I didn t realize it  but I used some custom extension methods in the code  The source code of those is        lt summary gt      Based on  http   stackoverflow com a 11773674      lt  summary gt  public static int Count this string source  string substring        int count   0  n   0       while   n   source IndexOf substring  n  StringComparison InvariantCulture      -1                n    substring Length            count            return count     public static bool StartsWith this string source  char value        if  source Length    0                return false            return source 0     value      Of course it should be possible to replace String StartsWith char  with String StartsWith string

User · Answer

Just remember to fix multiple CSS inclusions in a bundle such as   bundles Add new StyleBundle    Content styles jquery-ui        Include    Content css path1 somestyle1 css      Content css path2 somestyle2 css       You cannot just add new CssRewriteUrlTransform   to the end as you can with one CSS file as the method does not support it  so you have to use Include multiple times   bundles Add new StyleBundle    Content styles jquery-ui        Include    Content css path1 somestyle1 css   new CssRewriteUrlTransform         Include    Content css path2 somestyle2 css   new CssRewriteUrlTransform

User · Answer

CssRewriteUrlTransform fixed my problem   If your code still not loading images after using CssRewriteUrlTransform  then change your css filename s from    Include    Content jquery jquery-ui-1 10 3 custom css   new CssRewriteUrlTransform      To    Include    Content jquery jquery-ui css   new CssRewriteUrlTransform      Someway   dots  are not recognizing in url

User · Answer

Another option would be to use the IIS URL Rewrite module to map the virtual bundle image folder to the physical image folder   Below is an example of a rewrite rule from that you could use for a bundle called    bundles yourpage styles  - note the regex matches on alphanumeric characters as well as hyphens  underscores and periods  which are common in image file names    lt rewrite gt     lt rules gt       lt rule name  Bundle Images  gt         lt match url   bundles yourpage images   a-zA-Z0-9 -         gt         lt action type  Rewrite  url  Content css jquery-ui images  R 1     gt       lt  rule gt     lt  rules gt   lt  rewrite gt    This approach creates a little extra overhead  but allows you to have more control over your bundle names  and also reduces the number of bundles you may have to reference on one page   Of course  if you have to reference multiple 3rd party css files that contain relative image path references  you still can t get around creating multiple bundles

User · Answer

Better yet  IMHO  implement a custom Bundle that fixes the image paths  I wrote one for my app    using System  using System Collections Generic  using IO   System IO  using System Linq  using System Text RegularExpressions  using System Web  using System Web Optimization         public class StyleImagePathBundle   Bundle       public StyleImagePathBundle string virtualPath            base virtualPath  new IBundleTransform 1                   IBundleTransform  new CssMinify                             public StyleImagePathBundle string virtualPath  string cdnPath            base virtualPath  cdnPath  new IBundleTransform 1                   IBundleTransform  new CssMinify                             public new Bundle Include params string   virtualPaths                if  HttpContext Current IsDebuggingEnabled                           Debugging  Bundling will not occur so act normal and no one gets hurt              base Include virtualPaths ToArray                 return this                        In production mode so CSS will be bundled  Correct image paths          var bundlePaths   new List lt string gt             var svr   HttpContext Current Server          foreach  var path in virtualPaths                        var pattern   new Regex   url s    s                  1 s      RegexOptions IgnoreCase               var contents   IO File ReadAllText svr MapPath path                if  pattern IsMatch contents                                 bundlePaths Add path                   continue                              var bundlePath    IO Path GetDirectoryName path     string Empty  Replace                               var bundleUrlPath   VirtualPathUtility ToAbsolute bundlePath               var bundleFilePath   String Format   0  1  bundle 2                                                   bundlePath                                                 IO Path GetFileNameWithoutExtension path                                                  IO Path GetExtension path                contents   pattern Replace contents   url  1    bundleUrlPath     2 1                 IO File WriteAllText svr MapPath bundleFilePath   contents               bundlePaths Add bundleFilePath                     base Include bundlePaths ToArray             return this             To use it  do   bundles Add new StyleImagePathBundle    bundles css   Include       This Is Some Folder Path layout css          instead of     bundles Add new StyleBundle    bundles css   Include       This Is Some Folder Path layout css       What it does is  when not in debug mode  looks for url  lt something gt   and replaces it with url  lt absolute path to something gt    I wrote the thing about 10 seconds ago so it might need a little tweaking  I ve taken into account fully-qualified URLs and base64 DataURIs by making sure there s no colons     in the URL path  In our environment  images normally reside in the same folder as their css files  but I ve tested it with both parent folders  url    someFile png   and child folders  url someFolder someFile png

User · Answer

Grinn solution is great   However it doesn t work for me when there are parent folder relative references in the url  i e  url        images car png     So  I slightly changed the Include method in order to resolve the paths for each regex match  allowing relative paths and also to optionally embed the images in the css   I also changed the IF DEBUG to check BundleTable EnableOptimizations instead of HttpContext Current IsDebuggingEnabled       public new Bundle Include params string   virtualPaths                if   BundleTable EnableOptimizations                           Debugging  Bundling will not occur so act normal and no one gets hurt               base Include virtualPaths ToArray                 return this                    var bundlePaths   new List lt string gt             var server   HttpContext Current Server          var pattern   new Regex   url s    s                  1 s      RegexOptions IgnoreCase           foreach  var path in virtualPaths                        var contents   File ReadAllText server MapPath path                var matches   pattern Matches contents                  Ignore the file if no matches             if  matches Count    0                                bundlePaths Add path                   continue                            var bundlePath    System IO Path GetDirectoryName path     string Empty  Replace                               var bundleUrlPath   VirtualPathUtility ToAbsolute bundlePath               var bundleFilePath   string Format   0  1  bundle 2                                                   bundlePath                                                 System IO Path GetFileNameWithoutExtension path                                                  System IO Path GetExtension path                   Transform the url  works with relative path to parent folder                    contents   pattern Replace contents  m   gt                                var relativeUrl   m Groups 2  Value                  var urlReplace   GetUrlReplace bundleUrlPath  relativeUrl  server                   return string Format  url  0  1  0     m Groups 1  Value  urlReplace                               File WriteAllText server MapPath bundleFilePath   contents               bundlePaths Add bundleFilePath                     base Include bundlePaths ToArray             return this              private string GetUrlReplace string bundleUrlPath  string relativeUrl  HttpServerUtility server                   Return the absolute uri         Uri baseUri   new Uri  http   dummy org            var absoluteUrl   new Uri new Uri baseUri  bundleUrlPath   relativeUrl  AbsolutePath          var localPath   server MapPath absoluteUrl           if  IsEmbedEnabled  amp  amp  File Exists localPath                         var fi   new FileInfo localPath               if  fi Length  lt  0x4000                                   Embed the image in uri                 string contentType   GetContentType fi Extension                   if  null    contentType                                        var base64   Convert ToBase64String File ReadAllBytes localPath                           Return the serialized image                     return string Format  data  0  base64  1    contentType  base64                                                        Return the absolute uri          return absoluteUrl          Hope it helps  regards

User · Answer

Here is a Bundle Transform that will replace css urls with urls relative to that css file  Just add it to your bundle and it should fix the issue   public class CssUrlTransform  IBundleTransform       public void Process BundleContext context  BundleResponse response            Regex exp   new Regex   url             RegexOptions IgnoreCase   RegexOptions Singleline           foreach  FileInfo css in response Files                string cssAppRelativePath   css FullName Replace context HttpContext Request PhysicalApplicationPath  context HttpContext Request ApplicationPath  Replace Path DirectorySeparatorChar                    string cssDir   cssAppRelativePath Substring 0  cssAppRelativePath LastIndexOf                    response Content   exp Replace response Content  m   gt  TransformUrl m  cssDir                          private string TransformUrl Match match  string cssDir            string url   match Value Substring 4  match Length - 5  Trim                      if  url StartsWith  http         url StartsWith  data image    return match Value           if   url StartsWith                   url   string Format   0   1    cssDir  url            return string Format  url  0     url

[css] MVC4 StyleBundle not resolving images

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