Debugging RESTful WCF Service

Question

I am attempting to debug a RESTful WCF service I've created using a web browser as my client. Initially things go well however after stopping the debug session and making some changes to my code when I restart it's as if the old code is still being run. My breakpoints are ignored and it's as if a process is not being stopped.

I am running the service within Visual Studio and here's the URL I am asking the browser to retrieve:

http://localhost:25000/IntegrationService.svc/DeskQueue/tophd

It's clear the proper method is being called but the breakpoint I have at the top of the method is being ignored. Is there some external process I need to stop?

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Maybe it would be more convenient to deploy your service on IIS (Project settings->Web->Use Local IIS Web server, Create virtual directory) and then debug the service from Visual Studio (Debug->Attach to process->w3wp.exe).

Answer 2

You need to kill Cassini (the WebDev Server) as it's holding on to your older built WCF Server code....it doesn't automatically reload the newer DLL.

There are a few options:

• You can manually stop Cassini by looking in your Notification area for the "ASP.Net Development Server" icon (yellow with world inside) and selecting Stop (via the context menu or Dialog).

• You could install the Visual Studio addin KillCassini, so you just have to press a key combo to kill the server when you wanted it killed http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/1269c9a1-fcfe-4b47-91e7-22c7027f3c41

• You could turn on Edit-and-Continue, so that it restarts a new Cassini the next time you Debug Automatically stop/restart ASP.NET Development Server on Build

If you have some really exotic debug/test/run cycle then you could leverage a drop-in compatible replacement for Cassini that comes with source code.

http://cassinidev.codeplex.com/