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Which version of Visual Studio can be used to open a project which is built as ASP Web project I have Community edition 2019 Does this support ASP projects?

I know these days no one is using ASP for building web apps The purpose is to maintain an existing ASP solution for a couple of more months 9If any bug fix requests from the client comes ) and start to build a new project using the latest version of Microsoft technologies

Hans Passant
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Sebastian
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    Would recommend [VSCode](https://code.visualstudio.com/) for Classic ASP work. Have the ASP site in a git repo and use git in VSCode to work on the site. Works really well and there are some good extensions for syntax and ASP highlighting support. – user692942 Nov 26 '20 at 19:58
  • See: [How do you debug classic ASP?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1138175/how-do-you-debug-classic-asp) – Flakes Nov 27 '20 at 03:20
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    @Flakes the OP hasn’t asked about debugging. – user692942 Nov 27 '20 at 08:39
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    @Lankymart _9If any bug fix requests from the client comes )_ – Flakes Nov 27 '20 at 09:21
  • @Flakes whatever, was just pointing out the OP was asking about an IDE for working with Classic ASP code. I'm not saying debugging isn't important, just that dup target doesn't really point to a good IDE just how to attach the debugger in VS. – user692942 Nov 27 '20 at 09:46

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Visual Studio

Most versions of Visual Studio support editing Classic ASP code, couple of things to keep in mind though.

  • Frontpage Server Extensions is no longer supported, the best approach is to use a mapped drive or better yet store the code in source control (Git, SVN etc.) and work with the code locally (can bind to a local instance of IIS).

  • The IDE can be quite cumbersome for working with Classic ASP as it's designed for more modern technologies.

It also has sophisticated debugging through the IDE via the "Attach to process" which will work with Classic ASP running in IIS as long as the web application has been configured correctly for debugging. See How do you debug classic ASP?.

Visual Studio Code

Another option is Visual Studio Code which is a free IDE built on the principle of open source projects for cross-platform. It's becoming a popular free IDE for many developers rivalling the likes of Atom, Sublime etc.

It's lightweight and extensible through extensions, there are already some useful extensions for Classic ASP including this one;

It also has built-in support for popular source control solutions like Git and more powerful available through the extension marketplace that is built into the IDE. If you do use Git would recommend installing the GitLens extension.

user692942
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  • @Sebastian did you find this answer helpful, if so please consider up-voting and maybe even [accepting the answer](https://stackoverflow.com/help/someone-answers)? – user692942 May 13 '21 at 00:47
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Every version of visual studio since I started with 2010 (was there something before it?) handles Classic ASP just fine. I'm on VS2019 right now.

I even have a project which is a combo Classic ASP, Webform, and MVC all in one project, with some session sharing, and I routinely code and debug in all. The only limitation is that when you debug, you have to choose whether you're debugging Managed code or "script".

With each I "attach to process" and choose which code I want to debug. Classic ASP debugging is fantastic, and I can't believe more people don't do it. I see basic questions on here which would easily be fixed with standard debugging techniques (settings breakpoints, evaluating variables).

The ONLY thing which isn't supported is code formatting inside <% %> blocks. If I ever get some time maybe I'll make an addon for it.

LarryBud
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