windows azure upload file path error: 'Could not find file... ' - azure

Question

I've been trying to upload a file to the Azure storage container.
When I run my web app locally, if file is not in the web site root I get an error:
Could not find file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\test.txt'.
If I copy the file to the web app root folder, it works fine.
Running web app on the cloud I get an error:
Could not find file 'D:\Windows\system32\test.txt'.
I can't get the full local file path from HttpPostedFileBase object.
The code:
private string UploadFile(HttpPostedFileBase file, string folder)
{
try
{
var date = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyyMMdd-hhmmss-");
var fileName = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse("DefaultEndpointsProtocol=http;AccountName=test;AccountKey=asdfasfasdasdf");
CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference(folder);
bool b = container.CreateIfNotExists();
CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(date + fileName);
blockBlob.Properties.ContentType = file.ContentType;
using (var fileStream = System.IO.File.OpenRead(fileName))
{
blockBlob.UploadFromStream(fileStream);
}
return blockBlob.Uri.AbsoluteUri;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return ex.Message;
}

Answer 1

The HttpPostedFileBase manual has this to say;
FileName Gets the fully qualified name of the file on the client.
That is, the file name is not one that can be opened on the server.
I think what you really want to do is use the InputStream property;
blockBlob.Properties.ContentType = file.ContentType;
blockBlob.UploadFromStream(file.InputStream); // Upload from InputStream
return blockBlob.Uri.AbsoluteUri;

Answer 2

Thank you so much: Joachim Isaksson (above) I spent the whole day yesterday fighting with this one line of code. I've voted your answer up but I thought I'd add a copy of your solution that lies within my own code now:
public async Task<ActionResult> UploadAsync()
{
try
{
HttpFileCollectionBase files = Request.Files;
int fileCount = files.Count;
if (fileCount > 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < fileCount; i++)
{
CloudBlockBlob blob = blobContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(GetRandomBlobName(files[i].FileName));
blob.Properties.ContentType = files[i].ContentType;
blob.UploadFromStream(files[i].InputStream);
// the above 2 lines replace the following line from the downloaded example project:
//await blob.UploadFromFileAsync(Path.GetFullPath(files[i].FileName), FileMode.Open);
}
}
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
}