How to run a test at the same time a web project is being debugged?

Question

In some of the solutions we have ASP.NET/WCF web project and a test project. Some of the tests run against ASP.NET development web server using http://localhost:port/.... In VS2010 while the ASP.NET/WCF web project was being debugged, the test runner could run the tests and if there were any breakpoints in web project, the debugger would break the execution. This seems to have been disabled/removed in VS2012.

When the ASP.NET/WCF web project is debugged (launched by pressing F5 or via attach process), both the TEST->Run and TEST->Debug sub-menus are disabled. In VS2010 only Test->Debug sub-menus were disabled while Test->Run sub-menus were still enabled. We use this way to easily debug the services within the web project. Any way to get that behavior back or workaround?

Debugging While Running on ASP.NET Development Server doesn't seem to be applicable to VS2012 or at least I can't get it to work.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.