Short Version:
I’m using a 64bit dll (system.data.sqlite) in an Asp.net MVC app in VS 2010. The application runs and debugs fine, but all the aspx and ascx pages show errors when editing in Visual Studio 2010 and intellisense doesn’t work.
This is a VS2010 regression bug. Does anyone have a work around?
(OR)
Does anyone know of a free, reliable, production ready embeddable database that doesn’t cause a 32/64 bit problem?
More Details
Apparently this worked in Visual Studio 2008 and this has been is a known regression bug in Visual Studio 2010 for several months. I don’t want to revert to VS 2008 and I don’t want to debug in 32 bit mode.
I have web application that needs to debug and deploy as a 64 bit mode because it uses uses some unmanaged 64 bit dll’s like system.data.sqlite. Also, I prefer debugging in 64 bit mode because it allows us to test some high memory use cases.
After a lot of fiddling, Asp.net will deploy and run just fine. However all the aspx and ascx pages show errors and intellisense doesn’t work when editing them in Visual Studio 2010. Apparently this worked in Visual Studio 2008 and this has been is a known problem in Visual Studio 2010 for months. I don’t want to revert to VS 2008.
There was a work around posted on SO here but it didn’t work in my tests, limits debugging to 32bit mode, and also feels a bit hacky (I think it only works for VS Express style websites). Has anyone made this work in a web application or have a better work around?
For those who are interested Visual Studio 2010 has two other problems with 64bit dlls that I have managed to work around.
Problem 1 – Cassini: Cassini can only debug in 32 bit mode
Solution 1 – CassiniDev or Localhost: Debug using localhost or compile CassiniDev (an opensoure variant of cassini) in 64bit mode. I like the zero config simplicity of debugging a new web app with cassini so I used CassiniDev. You just stick the dlls in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\DevServer\10.0 and it works (I recommended making a backup of the Cassini version you will be over writing).
Problem 2 – MSTest: By default unit tests run with MSTest fail to load 64bit dlls.
Solution 2 – AnyCPU & 64bit host process Instructions here, set local.testsettings to AnyCPU & 64bit host process
I’m starting to think the whole setup is too little hacky and I’m on the verge of giving up and restructuring my application to not use a 64bit dll. I’m also really disappointed that Visual Studio 2010 caused all these problems. Can somebody make MS fix the regression bug they created?
Or,
We want to use an embeddable database. Does anyone know of a free, reliable, production ready embeddable database that doesn’t cause the 32/64 bit problem?
I’m afraid there may not be a work around that enables 64bit debugging Asp.net with a 64bit unmanaged dll dependency that won’t break the web forms editor. I’m thinking the VS Asp.net team considers 64bit dependencies an edge case and will fix the webforms editor when they have time… be warned.
You can always debug in 32bit mode and then deploy 64bit without proper testing.
I’m planning to avoid the issue by replacing sqlite with a persistent key/value solution based on managed esent.