I'm working on a fairly large ASP.NET web application and I'm taking a big productivity hit when I do work in the interface. I can zip through adding features to the database and API, then I hit the interface and having to recompile and run eats up a lot of my day.
For example if i'm working on a tricky bit that isn't behaving quite right and requires a number of tweaks I'll have to go through multiple [stop/tweak/build/run/log in/navigate back to page] cycles, which really kills my flow and has me staring at the screen with my finger hovering over the hackernews bookmark each time.
I've been fiddling with ways to get around this problem but I haven't improved my situation much. Here's what I've found so far:
visual studio will restart the app frequently when you change static files (js/css/etc), which shouldn't require a restart. If you run VS with IIS express instead this problem goes away.
If I know I have a bunch of messing around to do i'll cut/paste my code into a server script tag on the markup page, run the product, and tweak until it's good, then cut/paste it back. This is annoying because it often requires setting up a number of Imports page declarations and code editing features in ASP.NET files, while better than ever in VS2010, is not as good as in C# files. Plus, it still restarts the app occasionally once enough changes are made.
I can exclude the codebehind file from the web application project, change the "codebehind" attribute in the aspx page declaration to an "src" attribute, then edit the code from there while the app runs (until i make enough changes to trigger a restart.) However now intellisense doesn't work in the codebehind, among other things.
Am I missing something blindingly obvious here, or is development in ASP.NET web applications really supposed to be this slow? Thanks for any solutions you can offer.
I never run my applications through Visual Studio. Set yourself up with IIS and then configure a site to point to the location of your application along with a faux domain. Edit your hosts file to point the domain to localhost.
Then when you want to view your site, just visit the domain that you chose. If you need to modify CSS or script, just make your changes and refresh the page. If you make a code change, compile your app and then refresh the page.
If you need to actually use the Visual Studio debugger, then just attach to the IIS process (application pool name) and your breakpoints will get hit.
I've found a combination of techniques that brings my productivity up a fair bit.
Use an alternative browser like Chrome. When you stop the VS debugger and you're using IE, VS will shut down the browser, but it won't do it with Chrome (or Firefox, or anything else.)
Switched web.config to run in Windows Authentication mode and wrote a quick transparent login routine enclosed in conditional compilation tags (debug only, this feature is not perfect for our production product.)
Now when I'm getting into it I can stop the debugger (which no longer closes the browser,) make code changes, build, optionally start the debugger again, and just hit F5 in Chrome to load the latest. The refresh obviously takes longer since the app has to start up but there's no "run browser/log in/navigate back to the page" task anymore.
Hopefully this will help somebody else in a similar situation.
Related
I am new to ASP.NET and trying to get the debug feature working so I can see the values from the variables in the code. I know that I have done it all wrong from the beginning so the debug is not working properly now. Here is what I did.
A while ago, I played around and built a number of ASP.NET pages, kind of manually creating the .ASPX page and then the code behind page .ASPX.VB directly from the web server. Everything is working fine. I have my desktop computer connected to the Web server, and mapped the directory contains all the web pages (including both classic ASP and ASP.NET), where I just right-click on the web page file and edit directly.
Now, I am updating some ASP.NET pages, and want to learn how to perform debug, but getting many errors when I put the breakpoint and run Debug. Example of errors like "AjaxControlToolKit.Dll not found". Note that the page is still working fine if I view it from the browser, so the AjaxControlToolKit is there.
Can you please suggest the correct way that I should do to retain all the ASP.NET pages and also make the Debug feature working correctly? I have no problem to migrate all web pages from the web server to my local drive (desktop) if that requires for the Debug to work properly.
Thanks in advance,
Frankly you've got an uphill battle ahead of you - it's probably not debugging because the <assembly name>.pdb files are not in the BIN folder of your website, or if they are they are out of date (compared with the source files) or point to the wrong location (of the source files).
IMHO I think you should create a fresh web project in VS and then recreate each page in VS and copy the appropriate code. I think that would be quicker and less risky. The road you're currently heading down will take you on a tour of debugging which would be useful, but not necessary at this point in your learning.
Typically most people develop locally in VS and then use the Publish function (in VS) to create a folder you can then upload (manually if need be) to the remote server.
Usually you want to avoid debugging on the production server unless there's a problem specific to it, which isn't present locally.
I have a project that has, amongst other things, one web application (mvc) and one WPF application. For the part that matters, the WPF app connect to a WCF service hosted on the website.
What I want to achieve is that when I press Ctrl+F5 (start WITHOUT debugging), the build process kicks in (if needed, in other words, the default VS behavior), the WPF app launched, and if the webdev server is not launched, that it get launched too, but without opening any page on my browser (I'll manage that myself).
I managed to get that working as I want (configuration below), but every time I do a Ctrl+F5, I get a popup from VS that says
Choosing to wait for a request from another process without enabling
ASP.NET debugging results in nothing to debug.
I value the information, and that seems to match pretty much what I'm trying to accomplish anyway, but now, instead of having to close a useless tab in my browser, I have to close a modal dialog. Not a big improvement from my point of view.
So, how do I prevent this popup to show up ?
Additional information:
I don't want to start in debug mode (F5). If I need debug for the website, I'll do my usual (attaching to the webdev server).
I want the webdev server to be running all the time from the first CTRL+F5.
I don't want to publish it on IIS (even the express version)
The solution startup option is set on "Multi startup project" with the WPF app on "Start" and the website on "Start without debugging" (setting it on Start doesn't change anything, except that I also get the popup when debugging with F5 directly).
The website has its start action configured on "Don't open a page. Wait for a request from an external application". The ASP.NET checkbox in the Debuggers is checked.
Internet had not been a big help so far, so all my hopes lies on you SOers !
Edit
It seems that it was flagged as a bug, but I don't see any reference in what version it's supposed to be fixed...
Also, I discovered my question is a duplicate of this one.
I actually found another way : in the start actions, you can set it to "start external program" and reference a self quitting program. I used "C:\Windows\System32\PING.EXE". Not perfect, but also less annoying than the previous solutions.
Alright, I've been searching forever and can't find the answer to this.
So on my work computer I run Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2005. I have a ASP.NET project (2.0) and let's say I hit F5 and start debugging. Now, once a page is done rendering I can edit the content or the codebehind code of the page without it throwing any error messages (just like if the project was stopped). Then if I save the file and hit refresh on the current debugging browser, it'll take a minute to recompile the project automatically and then refresh with the recompiled code. I can ONLY change the code in the ASP.NET project, not any class libraries that the ASP.NET project is dependent upon. I can also set breakpoints and it'll hit them (so it's not like the debugger is not attached or something).
Now on my home computer, I run Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2010. I have an ASP.NET project (4.0) and let's say I hit F5 and start debugging. Now, it doesn't matter if the page it done rendering or not - I cannot change ANY of the code behind, although I can change the content. If I attempt to I get a message saying
"Changes are not allowed while code is running or if the option 'Break all processes when one process breaks' is disabled. The options can be enabled in Tools, Options, Debugging."
That being said, if I put a break point, refresh the page and hit the breakpoint THEN I can change the code and then hit F5 to continue.
So my question is - what EXACTLY do I need to do to get it to work like my work computer? It's REALLY annoying to have to stop the project or be clicking breakpoints all over to edit one little piece of code (especially when I'm so used to not having to do that at work). Is this some change in Visual Studio 2010 or something? From what I've read, how it's working at home is the real "Edit and Continue", but I can't figure out what to call it on how it works with my work pc.
Another difference (might be of help):
I set it up so that my IIS goes to the project folder, and then run the project outside of the debugger on both my work and home machines.
Now on my work machine I can make a change to the code and when I hit refresh on the non-debugged browser it'll do the same pause for recompile and then refresh the screen.
On my home machine if I make a change to the code and save it and then refresh the non-debugged browser it will not recompile the code.
So this makes me think it's some IIS setting in the end to make it auto-recompile? It clearly doesn't seem to have anything to do with VS since I'm not even going through the VS debugger to access to code at that point.
Just my thoughts: maybe you use on the work WebSite project, but at home WebApplication. In case of application all code will be compiled in the single DLL and changes should be recompiled first. In case of WebSite - each page compiles in different DLL and you can chage any of the page and it will recompile it.
I'm fairly new to web service development, and I am really confused about how ASP.Net Development Server synchronizes with code during debug mode. When I make changes to my service, I cannot figure out how to propigate those changes so that my client can "see" them (I've been able to synchronize through a stumbling series of publishing the service, viewing the service in browser, etc... but I have a feeling there's a more reliable system than my random ritual).
Here are the symptoms I'm seeing: After I've made a change to the code behind my service (Service1.svc.cs), started the application through the debugger and attached the debugger to the WebDev.WebServer.exe process as well, my latest changes are not executed, and my breakpoints are not hit (they have the message that
"The source code is different from the original version."
What really baffles me, though, is that when the ASP.Net Development Server notification pops up in my system tray, its physical path points to my project folder, so I don't understand how it could be looking at anything but my current code files.
I do not like to play with knives but the only thing that worked for me involves editing the .csproj file itself. So, unload the project file, edit it by cutting and pasting the three asp.net files so that they are together in the ItemGroup. However, sometimes it is necessary to go further as explained here: http://carnotaurus.tumblr.com/post/4130422114/visual-studio-debugging-issue-with-files-of-the-same - Also, I give a list of other proposed solutions that did not work for me. I hope it helps.
I recently ran into some strange problems. Changes to files that are not code-behind (and not gets compiled to a DLL) should not require you to recompile the whole website, and this has never been I problem for me. These should actually get compiled dynamically when you first access the resource, e.g. the first time when browsing an updated aspx-page in the browser.
But yesterday, during development of a website, I noticed that even the smallest changes in html, javascript or anything in the .aspx-files doesn't get reflected when I save and reload the page in my browser. Rebuilding doesn't help either, actually I'll have to do a "Rebuild All" (in Visual Studio 2008) in order to see the changes. This applies to all aspx-files in my project.
I tried with minor changes on files in another web application project on the same server, and there it works as it should. Something must has happened to this particular application, but I cannot figure out what.
Do you have any ideas on how to solve this?
Best regards
Not sure if this was the solution, but I noticed that I was running out of disk space. After some cleanup it started working again...