Attach to Any ASP.NET Web Server from Visual Studio in One Click

This is an update to my previous blog post Attach to Visual Studio Development Server with One Click.

The Visual Studio Macro from previous article doesn’t support IISExpress or IIS; it only supported the Visual Studio Development Server, more over it doesn’t detect latest Development Web Server WebDev.WebServer40.exe.

Now I have updated the Macro so that it will automatically detect the Web Server setting from the project properties and attach it accordingly.

Below is the code for the new Macro, I think it is self-explanatory

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Public Sub AttachToWebServer()
    Dim attached As Boolean = False
    Dim project As EnvDTE.Project = GetStartupProject()

    If (project Is Nothing) Then
        MsgBox("Couldn't find a web project that can be attached")
        Return
    End If

    attached = AttachToProcess(project)

    If (Not attached) Then
        MsgBox("Couldn't attach to the process")
    End If
End Sub

Private Function GetStartupProject() As EnvDTE.Project
    Dim startUpProject As String = DTE.Solution.Properties.Item("StartupProject").Value

    For Each currentProject As EnvDTE.Project In DTE.Solution.Projects
        If currentProject.Name = startUpProject Then
            Return currentProject
        End If
    Next
    Return Nothing
End Function

Private Function AttachToProcess(ByVal project As EnvDTE.Project) As Boolean
    Dim serverProcessNamePattern As String
    ' Using either IIS express or IIS
    If project.Properties.Item("WebApplication.UseIIS").Value = "True" Then
        ' Using IIS Express
        If project.Properties.Item("WebApplication.DevelopmentServerCommandLine").Value.ToString().Length > 0 Then
            serverProcessNamePattern = ".*iisexpress.exe"
        Else ' Real IIS
            serverProcessNamePattern = ".*w3wp.exe"
        End If

    Else ' Assume development web server
        serverProcessNamePattern = ".*WebDev.WebServer\d+.EXE"
    End If

    Return AttachToWebServer(serverProcessNamePattern)

End Function

Private Function AttachToWebServer(ByVal serverProcessNamePattern As String) As Boolean

    Dim attached As Boolean = False

    For Each process In DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses
        If (Regex.IsMatch(process.Name, serverProcessNamePattern)) Then
            process.Attach()
            attached = True
            Exit For
        End If
    Next

    Return attached
End Function

Read my previous article Attach to Visual Studio Development Server with One Click to understand how we can add this Macro as command to the Visual Studio toolbar.