ASP.NET Core read content files while debugging

Question

I have some json files that I need to read from my asp.net core app. They are under a folder called data

--MyProject
---Startup.cs
---Data
------dataset1.json
------dataset2.json

I am using IHostingEnvironment ContentRootPath to read the files:

 string pathToFile = hostingEnvironment.ContentRootPath
                            + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
                            + "Data"
                            + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
                            + "dataset1.json"

which returns C:\\SourceControl\\Test.Backend\\src\\Test.Web\\Data\\dataset1.json

This works fine when I publish my code in IIS. However when I am debugging the files are copied into bin folder and the above code does not work. How can I read the files while debugging?

Answer 1

#if DEBUG

 string pathToFile = hostingEnvironment.ContentRootPath
                        + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
                        + "bin"
                        + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
                        + "Data"
                        + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
                        + "dataset1.json"

#else

string pathToFile = hostingEnvironment.ContentRootPath
                        + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
                        + "Data"
                        + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
                        + "dataset1.json"

#endif

you can have two different paths when you are in debug mode and in production with this approach. Just change the first path to your needs