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How to create folder in mvc solution directory so that it is included in project?

I am new in mvc and c# and I can't solve following problem:
I am trying to create a folder named "Items" in solution folder.
I have tryed to use CreateDirectory method:
Directory.CreateDirectory("~/Images");
But it didn't work for me - folder wasn't created ..
Partly working solution was to create a folder by :
Directory.CreateDirectory(Server.MapPath("~/Images"));
"Items" folder was created, but it is not included in the solution:
How to create folder in solution directory so that it is included in project ?
(I needs to by done by code not by hand)

You need to understand what solution and csproj file is used for
In general, they're being designed and used for development with Visual Studio, and once the project is compiled, all these files will be ignored and excluded from the deployment package
Directory.CreateDirectory(Server.MapPath("~/Images"));
The code above simply create the directory if not existed yet in the deployment package at run-time, so you won't see it in your solution unless you run the project locally (either debug/release mode, it does not matter here). However, everything will run normally in hosted environment (ex: IIS).
For your information, here's the brief of what solution and csproj is
solution (.sln) file: contains information to manage one or many individual projects, contains build environments (for each project), start up mode (useful when you want to start multiple projects in one run), project dependencies and so on. Take a note that VS also read from suo file (solution user options) which is used to defined user-custom preferences (you should not include the .suo file in the version control, because it's custom settings)
csproj file: define the structures of project, what the namespace is, what is static folders, embedded resources, references, packages, etc.
Lastly, if you create the folder manually, VS will auto include that folder into deployment package AND csproj, but depends on the file type, you might need to change the Build Action and Copy To Output Directory in file properties.
Hope it helps.

A deployed web application on a web server doesn't have any notion of Visual Studio solution or projects. So the Directory.CreateDirectory(Server.MapPath("~/Images")) is the correct way to create a folder inside your web application at runtime but we cannot be talking about including it into a solution because this hardly makes sense in a pre-compiled web application. If you create the directory on your local development machine, you could always manually include the folder to the corresponding .csproj file, but at runtime this will not make any difference whatsoever.

The reason I wanted to create a folder (if didn't exist) was to make sure it exits before I try to store image in it.
After reading posts here and a few google searches I have concluded that the proper way to handle image upload would be
To create (In my case) folder "Images" by hand to be sure it exists
Then storing uploaded img in existing folder:
string path =Server.MapPath("~/Images/"+ UploadedImageName);
file.SaveAs(path);

What is the easiest way to make a backup in visual studio 2013?

I want to make a backup from the whole project. I also need to rename every backup. I'dont like the way to copy the project folder and rename the folder and the project file.
I've already tried to make it like that:
http://jasonfaulkner.com/VisualStudioExpressProjectBuildBackups.aspx
But it doesn't work, I am always getting the error "Invalid parameters"
Does anyone already tried this?
Thanks

The DPack extension for Visual Studio includes the Solution Backup tool that creates a zip archive of the solution and auto names it.

Manually edit .sln file
This method is entirely aimed at renaming the directory for the project, as viewed in Windows Explorer.
This method does not suffer from the problems in the Remove/add project file method below (references disappearing), but it can result in problems if your project is under source control (see notes below). This is why step 2 (backup) is so important.
1- Close Visual Studio.
2- Create a backup of your .sln file (you can always roll back).
3- Imagine you want to rename directory "Project1" to "Project2".
If not using source control, rename the folder from "Project1" to "Project2" using Windows Explorer.
4- If using source control, rename the folder from "Project1" to "Project2" using the functions supplied by source control. This preserves the history of the file. For example, with TortoiseSVN, right click on the file, select TortoiseSVN .. Rename.
5- In the .sln file, edit all instances of "Project1" to be "Project2", using a text editor like NotePad.
6- Restart Visual Studio, and everything will work as before, but with the project in a different directory.
Alse would recommend TFS, a powerfull tool to do what you pretend. You will be able even to recover previous versions of specific files,if you have any error and you have troubles find it you can see what changes you did since last "check in " etc. There are many options

Why does VS2010 allow for the concept of "include in project"?

I'm still learning the basics of how VS2010 sees the world. Apparently, you can optionally "include" a file in a project. I'm a bit confused by this: If a file is version-controlled, AND the file is within the project directory, shouldn't it implicitly be "included" in the project? If not, what's the use case where a version-controlled file in the project directory should NOT be included in the project?
=== Addition ===
Based on the answers I've gotten so far, maybe I should rephrased my question: What does it mean for a file to be "included" in a project?

A project needs to know about files in order for compilation and distribution to occur. Just because you have a file that's under source-control, doesn't mean that it will be compiled if the project is unaware of it.
Also, you may want to include files as part of a distribution package. We do this quite often for our web projects that we distribute using web app gallery.
Conversely, you could have documentation or sql scripts that you version control, but do not want them to be part of the project.
EDIT: In answer to your update, what it means for a file to be included in a project is that the file is actually added to the .csproj or .vbproj file and will be used during compilation and/or distribution. VS does differentiate if the file is Content or if it needs to Compile it. This can be seen by clicking on the file in Solution Explorer and looking at the Build Action property.

No, you don't want random files that happen to be in the project directory included in source control.

We do sometimes put documentation (pdfs) or drawings/schematics in the project folder and under version control but you don't need them inside the visual studio project (especially when they are not being distributed because they are for internal use only).

Excluding the file from your project can be useful if the file is related to the project but not necessarily needed in the solution.
Example
If I need some test XML for an application that i'm writing; that is designed to normally be pulling this from a WCF service, it can be useful to keep that file in the directory for a development environment where I use IO to get the XML for testing, but I don't necessarily want it in my solution which is source controlled.

When you exclude a file from a project is no longer compiled or embedded, then when you want to include it again you can do so without having lost your settings.

If you e.g. copy a file (containing a helpful class which want to have in your project) into a folder of your project, then you will see ... nothing. You have to check the option "Show all files" of the solution explorer and the copied file can be seen, but it is still "greyed out". No you can choose the menuitem Include in project and that file will be integrated in your project and a pending change (add) for your source control is added too. Visual Studio doesn't include all files it can find in the project folder automatically to the project - and that is a good feature.

One of my colleagues explained to me a scenario in which a version-controlled file should NOT be part of the project. Here's the idea:
A developer writes some new code.
The code is experimental, and not intended to be part of the normal build.
The easiest way to exclude the file from the build is to NOT include it in the project, but still version-control it.
This way, the file can be shared with other developers, but not break the build.

how can create specific folder when install setup file?

I want to make setup for my project and i have one folder "Resource"
in this path ..\bin\Debug.now how can i make setup file ,that when
i install setup "Resource" folder with it's files become created in the
install folder ?
my database is sqlexpress for my database file what
should i do?it's folder is App_Data in ..\bin\Debug path.Thanks in Advance.

If you are going to be creating more than just this one setup I would recommend looking into the WiX Toolkit. It is an XML based toolkit that will let you create your MSI's with an amazing amount of customization. Placing the folders that you need where you need them is no problem at all. I think that might just be what you are looking for. Also the link that I included has a link to a really great tutorial that would help you get started.

System.Addin & ClickOnce

I have a annoying build process from using System.Addins API with ClickOnce. Using System.Addins requires a specific directory structure, and the main project does not reference the adapters, view, and contract directly, which doesn't work well with the ClickOnce architechture.
The annoying part with the build process is that I have to copy, via post build event, the .dlls from the add-in components into the directory of the main app project, then reference those files manually from the main project, so that ClickOnce will include them. Firstly, this takes 2 iterations of build to get it to build correctly, secondly, it interferes with source control (I have to exclude the copied add-in dll files from source control or any changes made to them would require checkout).
So, my question is, is there a way around this hack? Something more elegant?

I can't fully answer your question, but it appears you are creating ClickOnce deployments through Visual Studio. I would ditch that method and use MageUI instead. It's a stand-alone executable that can be found in the framework SDK that will generate your application and deployment manifest files. It comes with a gui version (mageui.exe) and a command line version (mage.exe).
Mage may not get rid of your post-build event but it should do away with having to reference the files to get ClickOnce to see them.

Thanks for your input, I am currently doing it the way you mentioned; creating the folder in my project, and include the dlls that I need. It works, but it's an ugly solution, and it interferes with Source Control.
I'm aware of the limitations of ClickOnce, I was hoping there may be a way around it. For example, I read somewhere that I can use deployment projects to create the appropriate dependencies needed in a specific structure. The problem with that is once it is deployed to the public, there is no easy way (within ClickOnce) to update those dependencies.

The solution I use is to have a single output folder for all projects. Every project puts it's own files in the correct subfolder. The application bootstrapper project puts his dlls also in the output (root) folder. When you then create a click-ones for the bootstrapper, it will take all the content from the output folder.
The hardest part is to actually get all the dll's in the right place (and have every dll only once)

I solved this problem by adding the pipeline assemblies as content into the main solution structure.
To do this, change the output folder from (/bin/debug /bin/Release) to something else. I used ../lib otherwise you would get a visual studio cannot reference this file error.
Create the pipeline folders in your main solution
\AddInSideAdapters
\AddInViews
\Contracts
\HostSideAdapters
Right click on each of the folders and click "add existing item" change to view all files and then browse to your ../lib (or wherever you have the output set) and then pull down the add button (click the down arrow) and click "Add as a Link".
Right click on each file and set it to Content.
This will create a refresh file pointed to your assemblies and they will be included into the clickonce manifest.

ClickOnce do not let you install the software where you want. It will install the binary and dlls in the documents and settings. You can in your project properties go in the Publish tab and select Application Files to select additional file to Include. If the System.Addings require dll in a specific folder relatively to your assembly, you might just create the folder in you project and includes from here the dlls. This might works. If not, I do not have "hack" or other solution, clickonce is great but limited with some functionalities.