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Debugging Compiled Visual Basic Components

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Given that in many cases you will be able to debug only a portion of your component's functionality within the Microsoft Visual Basic environment, there will be situations in which you will need to debug components built with Visual Basic after they have been compiled. Since the Visual Basic environment doesn't enable this, you must instead use the Microsoft Visual C++ environment.

To debug a Visual Basic component in the Visual C++ environment

  1. In Visual Basic 6.0, open the Visual Basic project that you want to debug.

  2. On the File menu, click Make YourProject.dll.

  3. In the Make Project dialog box, click Options.

  4. In the Project Properties dialog box, on the Compile tab, click Compile to Native Code and No Optimization and select the Create Symbolic Debug Info check box.

  5. Click OK, and then click OK again to compile your project.

  6. Move the compiled DLL to the location where COM+ applications are normally installed.

    Note

    If you don't move the DLL, you may get an error message informing you that symbolic debugging information for the DLL could not be located. If you have trouble getting the debugger to stop at breakpoints in your component, confirm that the DLL is in the standard packages directory, delete the component from its package, and re-add the component.

     

  7. Start Visual C++.

  8. On the File menu, click Open Workspace.

  9. In the Open Workspace dialog box, set Files of Type to All files(*.*), select your compiled component, and click Open.

  10. From the File menu, click Open (not Open Workspace) and open the Visual Basic module (.bas), form (.frm), or class (.cls) that you want to debug.

  11. On the Project menu, click Settings.

  12. In the Project Settings dialog box, on the Debug tab, select General in the Category box.

  13. In the Executable for debug session box, enter the fully qualified path for Dllhost.exe, followed by an argument specifying the process ID of the COM+ application containing the component. You will find the process ID on the General tab of the COM+ application's Properties dialog box. Following is an example: C:\Winnt\System32\Dllhost.exe /ProcessID:{<processID>}.

  14. Click OK.

COM+ Visual Basic Debugging Support Contrasted with MTS

Debugging in the Visual Basic IDE