Debug tt templates in VS2008

Question

Is there a way to debug tt files? I have installed SubSonic3 and all the templates do their job except the StoredProcedures.tt. It remains empty after 'Run Custom Tool'.

Answer 1

Read this article that will explain the use of both:

• JIT debugger (by placing Debugger.Break() in your template code) and
• Manually attaching to Visual Studio process with the second instance of Visual Studio

The second one is useful to users of systems after Windows XP:

• Vista
• 7
• Server 2008
• Server 2008 R2
• ...

Answer 2

Here is an easy method.

Add lines like this one to your T4 code:

System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("This is a debug message.");

Download and run DebugView from Sysinternals. Your debug messages will appear in the output window.

(Behind the scenes, these calls use win32 OutputDebugString().)

Answer 3

Start your template with:

<#@ template debug="true" ...

and add:

System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break();

to your template code to break into the compiled generator class.