Visual Studio Hacks

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Chapter 5, Debugging

#41 Debug a Running Process

HACK

Hacking the Hack

Remember how attaching to an ASP.NET application is so easy because it’s

always the same process? In fact, it’s so easy that even a machine can do it—

and you can write a macro to do it for you. Go to Tools

➝ Macros and select

Macros IDE. This will open the Macro IDE which is a Visual Studio look-

alike specifically for editing Macros. Right-click on My Macros and add a

new Module. Name the module “Debugging” or something similar. Then

add the following code into the new module:

Public Sub AttachToIIS( )

AttachToProcess("aspnet_wp.exe")

End Sub

Private Sub AttachToProcess(ByVal ProcessName As String)

Dim Processes As EnvDTE.Processes = DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses

Dim Process As EnvDTE.Process

For Each Process In Processes

If Process.Name.Substring(Process.Name.LastIndexOf("\") + 1) _

= ProcessName Then

Process.Attach( )

Exit Sub

End If

Next

End Sub

Modify the name of the process to w3wp.exe if you are using Windows

Server 2003. Next, save the module and close the Macro IDE.

Now, in your Visual Studio IDE, go to Tools

➝ Macros ➝ Macro Explorer.

Browse into your new module and find the

AttachToIIS macro. Double-click

to run it, and your project should attach to IIS and go into debugging mode.

You could then create a toolbar button and a keyboard shortcut for your

macro

[Hack #51]. For those of you who are writing a Windows