Web Tab, Project Properties

The Web tab of the project Properties page enables you to specify start behavior, server settings, and debugging properties for Web pages. Using this tab, you can specify how Visual Studio interprets the command to test a Web page when you select Start Debugging or Start Without Debugging on the Debug menu (or when you press F5 or CTRL+F5). Most of the options on the Web tab are local settings for the current user and are not shared with other users. An exception is the Server section settings, which apply to all users.

The Web tab properties can be applied only to projects that were created by using the ASP.NET Web application project template. A project created by using this template is also known as a Web application project.

For Web site projects, you can find some equivalent settings on the Start Options tab of the Property Pages dialog box. For more information about the differences between Web application projects and Web site projects, see Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects.

Note

The options on this page apply only when you are testing a Web application in Visual Studio; they do not apply when you are deploying a Web application to a production server. For more information about deployment, see ASP.NET Deployment Content Map.

To access the Web tab

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the name of a Web application project and then click Properties.

   The Properties window is displayed.

2. Click the Web tab.

UI Elements

Start Action

The Start Action group enables you to specify which page or process Visual Studio starts when you run the Start command or press F5 or CTRL+F5.

• Current Page
  Specifies that Visual Studio will use the default browser to display the page that currently is open in the editor.

• Specific Page
  Specifies that Visual Studio will run the specified page when you test the Web site, even if you are currently editing another page.

  Note

  You can also set this value by right-clicking a page in Solution Explorer and then selecting Set As Start Page.

• Start external program
  Specifies the full path of an alternative program that Visual Studio will run instead of starting the browser. The alternative program must have an .exe file-name extension.

• Command line arguments
  Specifies command-line options that will be passed to the external program.

• Working directory
  Specifies the full path of a working directory in which the external program will start. The path must exist.

• Start URL
  Specifies a starting URL to open. This option is typically used by Web service projects so that you can start a different Web site that will call your Web service.

• Don't open a page. Wait for a request from an external application.
  Specifies that Visual Studio should start your project in a Web server and wait for another application to make a request. This is useful for debugging Web service applications.

Servers

The Servers group enables you to specify which Web server will be used when you test pages.

• Apply server settings to all users (store in project file)
  Specifies whether server settings should apply to all users of this project or only to you.

• Use Visual Studio Development Server
  Specifies that Visual Studio will use the Visual Studio Development Server to serve the Web pages. For more information, see Web Servers in Visual Studio for ASP.NET Web Projects.

• Auto-assign Port
  Specifies that Visual Studio should select a random HTTP port on the development computer to send requests to. This HTTP port is used to test the Web application project by using the built-in Visual Studio Development Server.

  By default, the Auto-assign Port option is selected. Although the HTTP port is initially chosen at random, Visual Studio tries to use the same port every time that the Web application starts.

• Specific port
  Specifies the HTTP port number to use to test the Web application project by using the built-in Visual Studio Development Server. You can change this HTTP port number if the port is already being used, or if you want to test the application by using a specific port number.

  This can be useful if you are testing a Web service using the Visual Studio Development Server, so that you can specify a fixed port for testing with the localhost server.

• Virtual path
  Specifies the virtual path of your Web site when you test it using the Visual Studio Development Server. The default is the Web server root, which is indicated by a forward slash (/).

• NTLM Authentication
  Specifies that NTLM authentication is required for requests to the server. By default, NTLM authentication is turned off.

  Selecting this check box helps prevent other users on this computer from accessing your Web site and from using your identity and security permissions to run code.

• Use Local IIS Web server
  Specifies that Visual Studio will test your application on the local IIS or IIS Express Web server instead of the Visual Studio Development Server. These options are grayed out when IIS or IIS Express is not installed on the local computer.

• Use IIS Express
  Specifies that Visual Studio will use IIS Express Web server to serve the Web pages. This option is grayed out if IIS Express is not installed on the local computer. For information about installing IIS Express, see Using IIS Express. To specify IIS Express as the default Web server for Web projects in Visual Studio, see Web Projects, Projects and Solutions, Options Dialog Box.

• Project URL
  Specifies the URL that points to this Web application.

• Create Virtual Directory
  Creates an IIS virtual directory for the Web application.

• Override application root URL
  Specifies an alternative path for the application root URL. Use this option if the Web application root is not the root of your project.

• Use Custom Web Server
  Specifies that Visual Studio will test the application using a remote IIS Web server instead of the Visual Studio Development Server or a local IIS server.

• Server Url
  Specifies the URL of the remote IIS Web server.

Debuggers

The Debuggers group enables you to specify which debuggers will be available when you test pages. When a debugger is loaded, it can include debugging engines for different types of code. The options that you select in the Debuggers group determine which debugging engines are loaded.

Note

Each debugging engine that you load requires memory and affects the performance of debugging overall. In general, you should specify only the debugging engines that you need.

• ASP.NET
  Specifies that the ASP.NET debugger is loaded whenever you start the debugger. Use this debugger to debug the server code or client script in your pages and in any .NET Framework components that are called from your page.

  Note

  Processes to be debugged must be compiled with debugging information.

  If you clear this check box, Visual Studio starts the debugger but does not try to retrieve process information from IIS or the Visual Studio Development Server and make it available to the debugger. However, you can still debug client script in the page.

  For more information, see Debugging Web Pages Overview.

• Native Code
  Specifies that the debugger for native (unmanaged) code is loaded whenever you start the debugger. This option is useful if your Web site calls a component (for example, a COM component) that is written in an unmanaged language, such as C++.

  If you clear this check box, you can debug managed code, but the debugger will skip any calls to unmanaged code.

  For more information, see Debugging Native Code.

• SQL Server
  Specifies that the debugger for SQL Server stored procedures is loaded whenever you start the debugger.

  For more information, see Debugging SQL.

• Silverlight
  Specifies that the debugger for Silverlight is loaded whenever you start the debugger. For more information, see Debugging Silverlight Applications.

• Enable Edit and Continue
  Specifies that the Visual Studio Development Server will enable you to edit code-behind class files for pages and stand-alone class files in the application without restarting the debug session. However, editing inline code in an .aspx page or an .ascx file is not allowed. If you edit the Web.config file while debugging, Visual Studio displays a warning message. Saving changes to the Web.config file stops the debugger from loading old assemblies during an application-domain reset.

See Also

Concepts

Projects, User Interface Elements

Other Resources

ASP.NET Web Application Projects