Using scripts in a master page with ASP.NET MVC

I'm fairly new to ASP.NET MVC, and I'm having a little trouble with scripts... in particular, I want to use jQuery in most pages, so it makes sense to put it in the master page. However, if I do (from my ~/Views/Shared/Site.Master):

<script src="../../Scripts/jquery-1.2.6.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Then that is literally what goes down to the client - which of course only works if our current route happens to have the right number of levels. Starting with ~/Scripts/... doesn't work. Starting with /Scripts/... would only work if the project was at the site root (which I don't want to assume).

I have one working approach (I'll post below) - but: am I missing something?

I'd rather not have to involve a script-manager, as that seems to defeat the simplicity of the ASP.NET MVC model... or am I worrying too much?

Here's the way I can get it working, which works also for non-trivial virtuals - but it seems over-complicated:

<script src="<%=Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery-1.2.6.js")%>" type="text/javascript"></script>

I have a AppHelper class with some methods for adding script references:

public static string ReferenceScript(string scriptFile)
{
    var filePath = VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/Scripts/" + scriptFile);
    return "<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"" + filePath + "\"></script>";
}

so in your master page you can use:

<%= AppHelper.ReferenceScript("jquery-1.2.6.js") %>

I think the simplest way is to use the following, and it works in views to.

<script type="text/javascript" src="<%=ResolveUrl("~/Scripts/myscript.js") %>">
  
</script>

Based on the other replies, perhaps an extension method on Html (which is very common for MVC), similar to Eduardo's answer:

 <%=Html.Script("~/Scripts/jquery-1.2.6.js")%>

With:

public static string Script(this HtmlHelper html, string path)
{
    var filePath = VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute(path);
    return "<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"" + filePath + "\"></script>";
}

Why not just point your master page at Google's js file hosting? Then even when it comes to deployment (assuming your site is Net facing) you can abuse possibly pre-cached jquery files?

I made some of what OJ mentions, I created a GoogleHelper class with this methods

public static string ReferenceGoogleAPI()
{
    var appSettings = new AppSettingsReader();
    string apiKey = appSettings.GetValue("GoogleApiKey", typeof(string)).ToString();
    return ReferenceGoogleAPI(apiKey);
}

public static string ReferenceGoogleAPI(string key)
{
    return "<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=" + key + "\"></script>";
}

public static string ReferenceGoogleLibrary(string name, string version)
{
    return "<script type=\"text/javascript\">google.load(\"" + name + "\", \"" + version + "\");</script>";
}

Now I'm adding extra methods to get some ClientLocation data ;)

At work we are doing something like this from the ASP code behind:

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
  Const jQuery As String = "jQuery"

  With Me.Page.ClientScript
    If Not .IsClientScriptIncludeRegistered(jQuery) Then
      .RegisterClientScriptInclude(jQuery, VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/Includes/jQuery-1.2.6.js"))
    End If
  End With
End Sub

I don't know if it's possible to do that with ASP.NET MVC.

ResolveUrl is the most elegant solution IMO. Though it's a real shame the urls to CSS are resolved by runat=server and not the script.

You should take a look at using a utility like squish it. It can aggregate and obfuscate all of your css and js files for you. Or you can use it to generate script tags if you just keep it in debug more by using ForceDebug()

http://www.codethinked.com/squishit-the-friendly-aspnet-javascript-and-css-squisher

I just use a slash(/). For Example:

<script src="/Script/jquery-1.4.1.js"></script>

when the "jquery-1.4.1.js" file is in the Script directory of root. And it works perfectly.

Our applications are deployed using virtual directories, and we have had some issues with other answers mentioned here (not resolving the path correctly). One way that worked well, (not the only way mind you), was to use this:

<script src="<%=Request.ApplicationPath%>/Web/AppName/JavaScript/jquery-1.4.1.js"></script>

You can try Url.Content extension method with Razor syntax

<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>