How to verify that WebMatrix is performing web.config transformations? - visual-studio

Question

I have an MVC5 project that I'm publishing to Azure via WebMatrix, where I've defined a connection string for the database server in production in the web.config like this:
<configuration>
<connectionStrings>
<add
name="MyProjectContainer"
providerName="System.Data.EntityClient"
connectionString="[metadata stuff];
provider=System.Data.SqlClient;
provider connection string="
data source=x1.database.windows.net,1433;
initial catalog=MyProject;
Uid=x#x1;
app=EntityFramework;
Pwd=xxx
""
/>
</connectionStrings>
...for local development I have an entry in the web.Debug.config like this:
<connectionStrings>
<add xdt:Transform="Replace" xdt:Locator="Match(name)"
name="MyProjectContainer"
providerName="System.Data.EntityClient"
connectionString="[metadata stuff];
provider=System.Data.SqlClient;
provider connection string="
data source=MyDevServer;
initial catalog=MyProject;
integrated security=True;
multipleactiveresultsets=True;
App=EntityFramework
""
/>
I chose this approach because having an empty connectionString in the web.config with a transform in web.Release.config didn't seem to work. when I publish my app works on Azure, however, when I try to run it locally, Visual Studio is trying to connect to the Azure database instead of the local server.
So I have 2 questions:
What could I be missing that transforms aren't working when I publish in WebMatrix? because if I could make that work I would have the connectionString in the main web.config as empty and the right values in web.Debug.config and web.Release.config
What is wrong with Visual Studio that it doesn't know how to do the transforms either?
has anyone out there struggled with this?