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asp.net-mvcvisual-studiovisual-studio-2010cassini

Visual Studio ASP.NET MVC project: setting the start URL


Consider an ASP.NET MVC 2 project with VS 2010. The goal is to set the 'start URL' on run/debug using VS's built-in Cassini web server.

Entering the URL as I want to be loaded, in the typical & valid format, controller/action, VS 2010 gives this exception.

alt text

Tried Remedies:

  • starting the URL with and without a slash
  • ending the URL with and without a slash

Question: How can you specify the start URL for an MVC 2 project?

Technologies:

  • Visual Studio 2010
  • ASP.NET MVC 2

Resolution: I was using the wrong field in the startup options. What was needed was the "Specific Page" field with the relative URL, and not Start URL.


Solution

  • Start URL has to be a fully qualified URL and is not really used that often. It's meant for testing web services by opening a page that will call into the service, but isn't part of the application itself.

    If you're just looking to start on a certain page of your application, which it sounds like you want, then use the "Specific Page" field, and enter your relative URL.

    Here's the doc page on project start options.