PRB: Debugging Webclass Returns HTTP / 404: "Page cannot be found" Error in Browser

ID: Q241222

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 6.0

SYMPTOMS

When running a webclass from within the Visual Basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to debug or test, the browser window opens with the standard error:

HTTP / 404: "The page cannot be found"

Additionally, every time you run the project, you are prompted with the following dialog box

The following virtual root will be associated with your project directory

and the proposed name increments as in the following:


ProjectName-0<BR/>
ProjectName-1<BR/>
etc...

If you choose the previous name for the virtual root, you are re-prompted with the following text:

The specified virtual root is already in use.

CAUSE

These errors occur if both of the following are true:

The webclass project is a member project of a group (VBG).

You are opening Visual Basic by double-clicking the .vbg file.

The cause of the problem is that Visual Basic automatically creates a virtual root in Internet Information Server (IIS) that points to the project directory using a short 8.3 path name. You can see this by going into the Internet Service Manager (ISM), pulling up the Properties window for the virtual root, and viewing the Local Path text field. For example, if the project directory for the webclass is as follows


D:\EMI Web Site

the virtual root in the ISM sets the Local Path text box to the following:


D:\EMIWEB~1

The process of creating the virtual root does not complete successfully when using the short file name format.

RESOLUTION

There are several workarounds.

To open the group file in the Visual Basic IDE, select the File menu and click Open Project.

To open the group from a file, create a shortcut to the Vb6.exe file and change the Target field in the shortcut's properties to include the group file as an argument:
```
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\VB6.EXE
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\Group1.vbg 
```

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbVBp600 kbWebClasses kbGrpASP kbDSupport
Version : WINDOWS:6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb