Debugging multiple ASPNET Core applications simultaneously in Visual Studio - visual-studio

Question

Setup
We have a VS 2017 solution with 2 ASPNET Core 2.0 projects:
Project 1: WebUi - an UI project based on Vue with Typescript that contains the frontend of the application
Project 2: WebApi - an WebAPI project that contains all the api implementation
The productive deployment under IIS looks like this:
The Web Physical Path points to an empty folder. The WebApi points to the folder where the WebApi VS project is published. The WebUi points to the folder where the WebUi VS project is published. This works fine: the WebApi is accessible under /webapi and the WebUi is accessible under /webui. This setup also means that we don't need to handle CORS requests, since both projects run under the same domain.
What we are trying to achieve
Now we are trying to define a setup in VS 2017 that will allow easy debugging of both projects at the same time. What we have got so far is to publish the projects in debug mode and then attach to the hosting executables. This works fine. The problem is that for each change in the code another publish is needed in order to debug the new code. This takes too much time.
What would be much better is to just hit F5 in VS which would start both applications under the same host (like the IIS setup) in debug mode and be able to debug both projects at the same time. One project at a time works, but not both.
We have tried Setting the AppUrl of both projects in debug properties to the same url but with a different path:
Project WebUi:
Project WebApi:
But unfortunately this did not work.
How can we set up our project such that there is an easy solution to debug both projects at the same time?

Answer 1

I don't believe this is possible. From my experience you can only attach the debugger to a single project under a solution. Personally i would merge the two projects, with the API section being in an API Area. Another route is to move the two projects into their own solutions then you will have to open 2 visual studio instances to run the site.
Setting up an Api area inside the Ui Project
Startup.cs, Configure method
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.MapRoute(
name: "areaRoute",
template: "{area:exists}/{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
});
Create an folder structure Areas > Api > Controller. Then put all your API controllers in the folder. Then add Area and Route Attributes to all Api controllers
[Area("WebApi")]
[Route("[area]/[Controller]")]
With this set up the Ui project will reside on / and the api will reside in /WebApi. The whole solution will have one project, one IIS site, and VS will be able to debug everything at the same time. If you want the Ui to reside on /WebUi, either update your primary routemap or create another folder in Areas.

Answer 2

If you want to debug the deployment projects, I think the only option is to attach the debugger twice from VS to each app.
We usually develop project by Running project under IIS by changing Project properties->Web->Servers->Local IIS->Create Virtual Directory for the two projects, then it will run under IIS when debugging.
To run both projects, you could follow Solution properties->Startup Project->Multiple startup projects-> Set Start Action for them->F5, VS will run both projects.
So you could follow above steps to re-publish your projects, then you will be able to debug for both projects, or, you could only use for development and test, you could publish them if there is no problem.