MVC - Accessing css, image, js files in view folder

Question

In my mvc 3 application, assuming I have a folder structure like \Views\Account\js\custom.js How do I add that file to my view in the Account\index.cshtml please?

I have tried:

<script src="js/custom.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/views/account/js/custom.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="~views/account/js/custom.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

but nothing seems to work, firebug always says 404 file not found in places that are nothing like the ones I specify. (sometimes it adds extra view in the path :-s)

I know I can put it outside the view in my own folder and access it like /myFolder/myfile.js and it would work but this javascript file is very intimately related to what's going on in account view and nothing else, so it would make sense to put it there..

thanks.

Answer 1

The web.config file in the /Views folder restricts all access to files in the folder by default:

<httpHandlers>
  <add path="*" verb="*" type="System.Web.HttpNotFoundHandler"/>
</httpHandlers>

You could change that, but it's probably more secure overall to not store the assets in the views folder.

Answer 2

You can use a UrlHelper:

<script src="@Url.Content("~/view/account/js/custom.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>