Custom Server setting is not remembered in Web app Start Options

[=?Utf-8?B?UmljaCBBcm1zdHJvbmc=?=]

This used to work...

I have several web site "projects" configured in my VS 2005 solution, all of
which used to be configured to run in IIS on my PC (vs. the built-in
webserver in Whidbey). Somehow they got set back to "Use default Web server."
If I change them back to use a custom server and enter the URL for each web
app, everything is fine -- until I reopen the solution. Then they're all set
back to "Use default Web server."

I've been using this technique to force VS to run web apps in IIS ever since
VS 2005 came out, and never had a problem. Any ideas what might have caused
this or how I can make the "Server" setting stick in Start Options?

TIA...

--Rich Armstrong

[Walter Wang [MSFT]]

Hi Rich,

The "Start Options" of a web site is stored at %UserProfile%\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WebSiteCache\websites.xml.

Please check if there's any permission problem that prevented VS2005 from
saving to this file.
Regards,
Walter Wang (wa****@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[=?Utf-8?B?UmljaCBBcm1zdHJvbmc=?=]

Thanks for pointing the way. I fixed it based on what you said.

I found a copy of websites.xml in
C:\Users\RichA\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCach e on my box (it's running
Vista). It contained 74,076 zero bytes and nothing else, but it doesn't
appear to have any access issues (its ACL is simply inherited from
C:\Users\RichA).

The last modified date was May 4, about two weeks ago. If memory serves,
that was the day I uninstalled the VS Orcas CTP. If that's what did the
damage, then mea culpa. :(

I was able to repair it rather easily, though. Another developer gave me a
copy of his websites.xml which I gutted, leaving only the root element
(<DesignTimeData/>). I then opened VS, (re)set all of my web site Start
Options, quit VS, and voila: everything stuck.

Would you happen to know the answers to a couple of simple related questions?

1. Websites.xml wasn't saved until I quit VS, even when I did a Save All. Is
quitting VS indeed the only way to save that file?

2. What, exactly, must the Base URL indicate? For example, if I have a web
service in a virtual directory called MyService on my local IIS, which of the
following should it be?
http://localhost/MyService
http://localhost/MyService/
http://localhost/MyService/MyService.asmx

Thanks again.

--Rich

===========================================

"Walter Wang [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi Rich,

The "Start Options" of a web site is stored at %UserProfile%\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WebSiteCache\websites.xml.

Please check if there's any permission problem that prevented VS2005 from
saving to this file.
Regards,
Walter Wang (wa****@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
==================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Walter Wang [MSFT]]

Hi Rich,

I'm glad the suggestion worked and thanks for sharing the possible cause
here.

As always, we don't recommend installing CTP or beta version of any
products on your regular developing workstation or production server.

For this websites.xml, there isn't any public documentation on it. I'm
sorry that I really cannot provide more information about how it's used and
the format of it.

Regards,
Walter Wang (wa****@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
==================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.