WSS Dev: HowTo debug a WebPart

Can you debug a webpart in a WSS page? Yes – not a problem.

Prerequisites:

• From WSPBuilder make your Webpart (WP). See here.
• Activate the feature containing the WP
• Add the WP to a site page
• Open the page in a browser

Debug:

• In VisualStudio (VS) set a breakpoint in your WP code
• RightClick (RC) project – Build (Shift+F6)
• RC project – WSP – Copy2Gac
• (RC project – WSP – Recycle) => w3wp.exe will be shutdown and a new one will be created when a request to a page is done.
• RC project – WSP – Attach – choose w3wp.exe (the one with sql…?) => The breakpoint will be unfilled and not yet be reachable
• Refresh the browser (F5) => this will load debug info
• VS: Stop debugging (shift+F5)
• RC project – WSP – Attach – choose w3wp.exe
• Refresh the browser (F5) => now your breakpoint will be filled and reached

Thanx to Erik Norström.