Design-Time Debugging

bmains · October 18th, 2004, 10:37 AM

Hello,

Does anybody know how to debug an ASP.NET control at design-time? The control also implements a custom designer.

Brian

Imar · October 18th, 2004, 11:57 AM

Hi Brian,

Take a look at this NSFAQ (not so frequently asked question ;)): http://Imar.Spaanjaars.Com/QuickDocID.aspx?QUICKDOC=306

Cheers,

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.

bmains · October 18th, 2004, 02:18 PM

Hey,

Thanks. For some reason though, my control isn't triggering the designer functionality (GetDesignTimeHtml and GetEmptyDesignHtml) methods. I have breakpoints at those methods, and nothing is being returned. It isn't showing up in the IDE designer correctly, and I thought it may be the designer class.

Have you experienced this? Thanks,

Brian

Imar · October 18th, 2004, 03:46 PM

Hmmm, no, not that I recall. I am sure you already checked this, but is your solution configuration for the control set to Debug?

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.

bmains · October 19th, 2004, 06:57 AM

Hey,

Yes, debugging works to a point because I can debug properties when I change the value.

My declaration for the control is:

<DefaultProperty("Text"), DefaultEvent("CheckChanged"), Designer(GetType(Design.MyLinkButtonDesigner), GetType(System.Web.UI.Design.ControlDesigner))> _
Public Class MyLinkButton
Inherits WebControl

And the designer:

Public Class MyLinkButtonDesigner
Inherits System.Web.UI.Design.ControlDesigner

At what point do these methods get called? I would imagine that they would get called as soon as the control is dragged/dropped onto the page.

Also, is it possible to debug this from two separate solutions, as I did have them in the same solution, but broke them out.

Brian

Imar · October 19th, 2004, 02:11 PM

It's been a while since I created server controls, so I am not sure what behavior you can expect.
However, I just did a quick test with a control I built a while ago with debugging support, but it no longer breaks into the code when I add a control to the page.

I get a "this breakpoint will currently not be hit" message. This control is a bit odd as I made some change recently that force me to compile the control with a command line compiler, and no longer with Visual Studio .NET (I added support for embedded resources), so maybe that's confusing VS.NET now. But it's still very strange.

Will test it out later this week, see if I can get it working again....

Cheers,

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.

Imar · October 19th, 2004, 03:41 PM

I just did a very simple test, and I got it to work.

Here's what I did:

1. Create a very simple control. I had something like this:

Code:

  [
  DefaultProperty("ScaleLegend"),
  ToolboxData("<{0}:Rating runat='server'></{0}:Rating>"),
  Designer(typeof(Spaanjaars.Toolkit.Designers.DisplayContentRatingDesigner))
  ]
  public class Rating : WebControl, INamingContainer 
  {
    public Rating()
    {
      string test = System.DateTime.Now.ToString();
    }
    // More code here
  }

Next, I created the simplest designer possible:

Code:

namespace Spaanjaars.Toolkit.Designers

Code:

{
  internal sealed class DisplayContentRatingDesigner : System.Web.UI.Design.ControlDesigner
  {
    public override string GetDesignTimeHtml()
    {
      return "<strong>I am a test test</strong>";
    }
  }
}

I set a break point on the first (and only) line of the Rating constructor and on the return statement in the GetDesignTimeHtml method.

Next, I started debugging as per my FAQ, and everything worked perfectly. Both breakpoints were hit.

If I were you I'd try a very simple control, and get it to work. Then put back in your complexer controls and try to figure out where it breaks. It just has to work....

Re: multiple projects: I think that should be possible, but haven't tested it. Instead of setting devenv as the program to start, you'll need to manually attached the devenv process running the web app to your control. You can use debug | Processes to attach to it. I tested it with one devenv and it seemed to work, so there's a fair chance you can hook it up to a second as well.

HtH,

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
While typing this post, I was listening to: Micro cuts by Muse (Track 7 from the album: Origin of symmetry) What's This?

bmains · October 20th, 2004, 07:03 AM

Thanks, I'll try that.

Brian