Visual Studio ASP.NET MVC Not Loading Local bootstrap.css

Question

I installed bootstrap using nuget package manager and the css files are now in my /Content/ folder. However, when trying to reference them using:

<link rel="stylesheet"  href="∼/Content/bootstrap.min.css" />

It doesn't work. But when referencing them using a CDN like:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.1.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">

It does work. I can't seem to figure out what is wrong as I have never had this problem before. I'm using an Empty template with MVC.

EDIT: After some playing around, I found that it was failing to load /%E2%88%BC/Content/bootstrap.css but after removing the tilda (~) it works fine. Anybody got any ideas?

Answer 1

This is not a correct path, it uses the tilda, which is used on the server when rendering links in server controls in asp.net.

Instead of this:

<link rel="stylesheet"  href="∼/Content/bootstrap.min.css" />

Try this:

<link rel="stylesheet"  href="@Url.Content("∼/Content/bootstrap.min.css")" />

Assuming that you are using Razor.

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Alternatively, consider looking into style and script bundling that you get with new asp.net sites. Can be very useful.