C# 2010 ide

Question

I have asked this question in another forum, but I have not obtained I response from that asp.net forum. Thus, I thought I would ask this question in this group.

I have a setup and configure question for working with Visual studio.net 2010 professional version. I have been assigned the support of an existing C# web forms 2010 application that uses IIS 7 that needs to be compatible with IIS 6.

   I would like to be able to 'step through' code on my wokstation and still be using iis instead of the default web server that comes with visual studio called casini. I would like to have this type of environment so that my development environment will be setup to be like production as much as is possible.

Thus can you tell me and/or point me to a reference that will tell me how to install iis properly and tie the visual studio.net 2010 professional version so it is working with iis and/or probably iis express?

Answer 1

1. Deploy your application into your development machine (either install if available or copy the folder)

2. Create a webapplication using IIS (type inetmgr in run command)

3. Point the installed/copied folder as the path of the new website

4. Do an IISRESET

5. Open the solution in Visual Studio, create a breakpoint on Page Load event and Attach process "w3wp.exe"

6. Now you will be able to step through the code.

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A.m.a.L Hashim Dot Net Goodies

Answer 2

FYI you have to be an administrator (elevated if on Vista+) before you can interact with IIS via VS.  That is the biggest downside to using IIS for debugging.  In my experience WebDev (or even better IISX) is just as good for all but the most advanced websites.

Michael Taylor - 4/15/2012
http://msmvps.com/blogs/p3net

Answer 3

Thanks for your response! I have the following additional questions to ask:

1. Your first response if the following,"Deploy your application into your development machine (either install if available or copy the folder)". My question, why do I need to deploy the application? Can I just open the C# 2010 web application and 'step through' the code?

2. Can you tell me the purpose of the commands:"inetmgr", "IISRESET"? Is there a link that will tell me what the purpose of these commands are for?

3. You mentioned, " on Page Load event and Attach process "w3wp.exe""? What is this process setup for?

4. From the statments you made above, it seems like it may be easier for me to develop the code first using the default web server  called cassini. I would  then step through the web application, using the steps you juyst outlined above. 

Answer 4

CoolDadTX:

Thanks for your answer! I do have the following additional comments I would like to make:

1. I work for a small company and the network administrator gave me admin rights to my workstation.

2. My workstation that I use is Windows 7 Professional.

3. My boss (that only knows Java and is really a project manager) says that I should develop using iis so I will have less issues when I am ready to deploy the application to production. Thus can you tell me why I would want to develop with Cassini or IIS Express versus IIS directly? Is debugging that much easier? I would need a valid reason to tell my boss why I would want to test with Cassini. Thanbks!

Answer 5

Under Vista+ if you are a local admin and you are using UAC then you must still select the option to run as administrator otherwise you're running as a normal user.

IISX is the preferred mechanism going forward. It is IIS but purposefully restricted for security reasons.  It behaves identical to the full IIS including all the standard features.  Unless you're doing advanced stuff with IIS metadata IISX works and the behavior will be the same.  Furthermore IISX does not require special permissions.

WebDev is being obsoleted so I wouldn't target it unless I had to but it is still an option as well.  WebDev behaves like IIS and, again, unless you're doing advanced stuff you are unlikely to see any differences between IIS and WebDev.  Exceptions do exist though such as complex URL rerouting, non-standard authentication, compression, etc but these are generally configuration issues that have to be tested in the final environment anyway.

The goal of IISX (and WebDev) was to get away from using IIS because of the administration requirements and the security holes that it opens up.  I would recommend that you search the INet for articles on why IISX is preferable to IIS and how they differ.  At the end of the day I think you'll see that IISX is the best option.  FYI it is also faster to configure/run IISX than it is IIS.

Michael Taylor - 4/16/2012
http://msmvps.com/blogs/p3net

Answer 6

Hi wendy,

I think you should repost your question in IIS forums for a better support: http://forums.iis.net/ thanks for understanding.

Have a nice day.

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Alan Chen[MSFT]
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