Attach to debugger script and shortcut
I got sick of manually attaching to the webserver (either aspnet_wp.exe on WinXP or w3wp.exe on Win2003 or later). You can have a macro for that, incl. a shortcut key. I got this from somewhere on the web, but forgot where. If I find out, I’ll of course post it here. But I constantly have to search my sent items in Outlook for this bit of script when I tell someone about this. So here it’s on my weblog.
- Press ALT-F11 (Macro IDE)
A new Windows pops up - In the Project Explorer on the left, choose "Add new Item"
- Choose a Module and name it "AttachToWebServer"
- Paste the code below (and overwrite anything that was already there)
- Close this Window
- In Visual Studio, do "Tools" -> "Options" -> "Environment" -> "Keyboard"
- In the textbox for "Show commands containing" type "AttachToWebServer"
- In the "Press shortcut keys" press ALT F10
It's currently bound to something you're not using anyway ;-) - Press "Assign" and "Ok"
Now go to your web application project and press ALT+F10 and you're in debug mode, attached to the webserver. Press F5 in your browser (of course in the correct website) and you're done!
Here’s the code:
Imports System
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Module AttachToWebServer
Public Sub AttachToWebServer()
Dim AspNetWp As String = "aspnet_wp.exe"
Dim W3WP As String = "w3wp.exe"
If Not (AttachToProcess(AspNetWp)) Then
If Not AttachToProcess(W3WP) Then
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Process {0} or {1} Cannot Be Found", AspNetWp, W3WP), "Attach To Web Server Macro")
End If
End If
End Sub
Public Function AttachToProcess(ByVal ProcessName As String) As Boolean
Dim Processes As EnvDTE.Processes = DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses
Dim Process As EnvDTE.Process
Dim ProcessFound As Boolean = False
For Each Process In Processes
If (Process.Name.Substring(Process.Name.LastIndexOf("\") + 1) = ProcessName) Then
Process.Attach()
ProcessFound = True
End If
Next
AttachToProcess = ProcessFound
End Function
End Module