How to run a test at the same time a web project is being debugged?
Here is a workaround to debug a single unit test along with a web server. It relies on Debugging Multiple Processes (excludes MSVS Express):
- Start web server (non-debug), note its process id (IIsExpress icon -> Show All Applications)
- Place a breakpoint at first line in test
- Start Debuging the Unit Test, wait for it to stop at the breakpoint.
- Debug -> Attach To Process, enter web server process id
Both the test and server are running live in the debugger.
If you have a solution with WCF applications and tests calling them, you can debug the applications using the tests by calling Debug All Tests or Debug Selected Tests without a previous Start Debugging (F5).
Configure your solution to Multiple Startup Projects with None set in all actions and configure your WCF applications to the start action Don’t open a page. Wait for request. With this configuration the development web server starts if you select Debug All Tests or Debug Selected Tests.
In VS2013 the situation is the same: the options for running / debugging tests are greyed out while the project is being run/debugged. This is a shame especially for projects like web API's where tests for calling the API via HTTP (as opposed to creating an instance of the Controller class and circumventing any network traffic) are very useful as they are closer to what the end users of the API will experience.
As a workaround, you can either open the same solution in a separate instance of VS, or create a separate solution with the same projects, specifically for testing. Debug in the first VS instance, run tests in the second one.