Debugging Web Applications

With the introduction of Visual Studio .NET, debugging Web applications has become remarkably easy. With F5 debugging, the debugger automatically attaches to the correct process, be it inetinfo.exe if youre running in-process with IIS or (the correct) one of several DLL hosts . The new detach feature allows you to detach from processes (as long as you have dbgproxy.exe running) without having to terminate and restart your Web server (inetinfo.exe).

Improvements in native debugging help developers of ATL Server applications and C++ developers in general. Examples of such improvements include automatic display of HRESULTs in the Watch window and improved Unicode support for global Web sites. Theres also great Edit and Continue support, and the new ability to detach and reattach to processes, including inetinfo.exe.

Other improvements that are very useful (particularly for Web applications) include the ability to remotely debug applications and the ability to debug multiple processes (both local and remote) from a single IDE, which is great for debugging client/server applications such as Web services. In addition, the Visual Studio .NET product provides the WebDbg utility, which enables you to view the trace and assert messages that IIS traditionally attempts to hide from you.

For more information on debugging ATL Server applications, please see Chapter 15.