Metastorm 9 and the Visual Studio Debugger

You need to go into Add/Remove programs and do a Modify for Metastorm BPM SR1.  Once into the components screen, under Engine category, you need to select to install the Diagnostic Services component.

Once installed, you might need to modify the web.config for the Diagnostic Service to make sure the database connection is valid.

My issue was that the initial install did not create the virtual directory correctly.  After deleting the virtual directory and recreating it, it worked fine.

Where is the web.config for the Diagnostic Service?

I am trying to debug in an all-in-one environment, I have installed the Diagnostics, but I still get the error:

"The requested service, 'http://localhost/ProcessDiagnosticsService/ProcessDiagnostics.svc' could not be activated. See the server's diagnostic trace logs for more information."

In the Deployment tab of the Options dialog for the designer, "Process Diagnostics Service address" is blank. Should I put something in there. My whole install is plain vanilla default, all-in-one.

Here's what I found in the server's diagnostic trace log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: System.ServiceModel 3.0.0.0
Event Category: WebHost
Event ID: 3
Date:  9/14/2010
Time:  8:43:18 AM
User:  NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: VCFF-BPM9-TEST
Description:
WebHost failed to process a request.
 Sender Information: System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment+HostingManager/32347029
 Exception: System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException: The service '/ProcessDiagnosticsService/ProcessDiagnostics.svc' cannot be activated due to an exception during compilation.  The exception message is: The type 'Metastorm.ProcessDiagnosticsService.ProcessDiagnostics', provided as the Service attribute value in the ServiceHost directive could not be found.. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: The type 'Metastorm.ProcessDiagnosticsService.ProcessDiagnostics', provided as the Service attribute value in the ServiceHost directive could not be found.
   at System.ServiceModel.Activation.ServiceHostFactory.CreateServiceHost(String constructorString, Uri[] baseAddresses)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.CreateService(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.ActivateService(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.EnsureServiceAvailableFast(String relativeVirtualPath)
 Process Name: w3wp
 Process ID: 5384

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

How did you conclude that the initial install did not create the virtual directory correctly?

After deleting the virtual directory, how did you recreate it? By reinstalling the debugger, or manually?

Thanx!!!!!!!

Phil - Check the diagnostic services config file's DB connection.  I've seen this error many times.  The connection fails if it uses Window's Authentication when running under the app pool's context.  If this is the case, change the connection string to use SQL Authentication.

Does the debugger work with Visual Studio 2010?  I seem to recall that it only works with 2008?

I have it working fine with 9.1.2 and VS2008 for what that's worth.

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Phil McGaw wrote:  Changing the metastorm process service to run as "System Account: Interactive User" seemed to be the main thing that fixed it.

 

 

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I think that may cauuse problems in a real server environment. It should be fine for development (where you are logged in at all times), but not otherwuse, unless the way the engine runs has changed a lot in version 9.

I would be happy to be corrected on this subject, or have it clarified, as it is a general pain having to create a service account just for the engine on every installation.

Hi,

What specific version of MBPM and what version of VS are you using? At some point (I believe it was starting with 9.2.0 if I recall correctly) you are now required to use Visual Studio 2010 rather than 2008. 

You might have a reg key pointing to the wrong version of VS depending on the order in which you installed things.

Find the above VisualStudio.DTE key and update its 2 sub keys to values of the "correct" version of Visual Studio for the version of BPM you are on. You can find the proper values for VS2010, for example, in the key directly below the circle.

A coworker of mine has put together these steps but if you just look at the existin keys, it will be obvious what values you need to copy over under VisualStudio.DTE

To enable debugging with Visual Studio 2010:
1. Open Registry Editor from Command Prompt (RUN > regedit > ENTER)
2. (for 64 bit OS) Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node\VisualStudio.DTE.10.0\CLSID" (for 32 bit OS - "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\VisualStudio.DTE.10.0")
3. Take note / Copy of the value of "(Default)" class ID
4. (for 64 bit OS) Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node\VisualStudio.DTE\CLSID" (for 32 bit OS - "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\VisualStudio.DTE\CLSID")
5. Replace the value of "(Default)" with the value copied in step 3
6. (for 64 bit OS) Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow632Node\VisualStudio.DTE\CurVer" (for 32 bit OS - "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\VisualStudio.DTE\CLSID")
7. Replace the value of "(Default)" with "VisualStudio.DTE.10.0"

I'm running into the same issue with unable to attach to debugger, but I am running VS2012. I had this functioning with MS9.1 but MS9.2 simply will not attach to the correct process.

Essentially what I had to do in 9.1 is press Debug then have it open and close VS2012. Once it said 'Unable attach to debugger' I reopen VS2012 and copy all the files from the generated source code directory under ProgramData>etc... into VS2012. 

Then attach the debugger to the dllhost.exe running under my user account with the managed code and x86 profile. This worked fine in 9.1 but not 9.2.

My issue was never that I couldn't debug code created by the designer or within the event handlers (I'm well aware of this limitation). The problem is I simply can't get debugging in MS9.2 with VS2012.