SSRS Custom Assembly - debug without a Report Server?

Question

Is it possible to debug SSRS custom assembly with BIDS preview mode (not connected to a Report Server)?

I cannot seem to figure out a way to debug my custom assembly locally. When I include my custom assembly project within my report solution (and set up 'Depends On' in project properties) and preview the report- no breakpoints are hit.

Similarly, when I try to use the 2 instances of VS approach (attach to BIDS from the instance with my custom assembly project), I also cannot get any breakpoints to be hit.

Yes, my custom assembly is in the appropriate PrivateAssemblies SSRS folder and it is up to date.

I have debugged many custom assemblies in the past, but I have always had access to a Report Server and actually "run" the report (hit play button to do a full Debug). Also, note that I tried setting Debug option to "LocalOnly", however even with that, I still need a Report Server to connect to when I run a full Debug.

Isn't it possible to debug the custom assembly locally in Preview mode?

Thanks in advance for any answers/suggestions!

-Radagast

Answer 1

This is the best link I could find to provide with steps on debugging the report:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms153693.aspx

The section "To debug assemblies using two instances of Visual Studio" allowed me to debug my custom assembly. The two instances worked better for me since we are running SSRS/BIDS 2005 and our code is operating under C# 3.5 and VS 2008.

In your case, it's possible you didn't copy over the .pdb file which prevented the debugger from actually debugging.