Debug ISAPI extensions in Windows 7 and IIS 7.5 using Delphi XE2

Many things have changed in IIS from version 6 to 7 (and 7.5 that comes with Windows 7). If you are not familiarized with IIS 7 (and 7.5) debugging, maybe this post may help you. In fact, debugging ISAPI in Winodws 7 is easy if you follow a few steps:

Setting up IIS

First, you have to create a new application in IIS and set it up as usual. Two things are important during IIS and application setup:

1) In IIS, create the web application under Default Web Site.

2) Every application under Default Web Site should be using the same application pool, DefaultAppPool.

If you ignore these two rules, you will have additional configuration steps to run w3wp later.

Setting up the application in Delphi XE2

1) First and more important: Run Delphi XE2 as administrator! If you don't, Delphi may not be able to start the IIS Worker process (W3WP.exe).

2) In Delphi XE2 Ide, choose Run -> Parameters. Inform Host application and Parameters as you can see in the following picture:

W3WP.exe is the IIS Worker Process executable, and we will run it interactively to debug the ISAPI app. If you didn´t follow rules (1) and (2) of IIS Setup, then you will have to do additional configuration:
- Inform the web site using the parameter: -s "TheSiteId"
- Inform the application pool using the parameter: -ap "TheAppPoolName"
(This doesn't work with IIS 7 and above. The -ap parameter is not recognized by w3wp, so it's better to stay with tip (2) above)

Ready to go

Now that everything is ready, you have to stop the WWW publication service (W3SVC). You may use "net stop W3SVC" from an elevated command prompt, or use the Windows services console. Once the W3SVC is stopped, just run the application from Delphi XE2 IDE and call it from your browser. When the application is loaded all your breakpoints will be activated and you can easily debug the application.

Additional notes

I´ve found some references saying that you have to set the linking options "Map file -> Detailed" and "Include remote symbols -> On", in your project options. Well, in fact, the debuggin of ISAPI apps as explained here works perfeclty without the map file and the remote symbols.

Faster IntToStr functions for Delphi 32 bits

Last week I was trying to use the excellent "Enhanced Run time library" from A. Bouchez, in a Delphi 2006 project. Unfortunately, due copyright restrictions, the modifications are released as a code patch and for Delphi 7 only. Use all the modifications in a Delphi 2006 project is not an easy task. So I decided to use some of its code in another unit, patching the RTL original functions with new code, as I did a lot lately ;-)
The first two functions ported are faster IntToStr functions written 100% in assembly. The functions are 500 up to 1000% faster than original RTL functions, depending on the compiler (almost 1000% faster in Delphi 2006, almost 500% faster in Delphi XE2 - 32 bits). The code cannot be used in XE2 64 bit projects, because ASM 64 is a different beast. Maybe I will port other functions as well (things that don't violate copyright material), but many of them are already addressed in RtlVclOptimize (from Andreas Hausladen).
I created an unit called uCBRTLPatch.pas, containing two functions:

function FastIntToStr(Value: Integer): string;
function FastInt64ToStr(Value: Int64): string;

These functions will replace (patch) original IntToStr functions in runtime (for Integer and Int64 parameters).
To use it, you just have to add uCBRTLPatch.pas to your .DPR uses clause and you are done. You can donwload uCBRTLPatch.pas here.

Enjoy!

TCodeRedirect rewrite

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about TCodeRedirect. After that, I had a few problems using that code in Delphi 2006, specifically internal compiler errors (Internal Compiler Errors = useless error message!). The errors were occurring in some projects, not in all...
After a few tests I thought that could be something related to naming conflicts with original CodeRedirect function in Andreas Hausladen's RtlVclOptimize.pas (also used in my projects). So I decided to rename everything to avoid naming conflicts and it worked! No more internal compiler errors! Now my unit is named CodePatch.pas. I've updated my IntrawebPatch to use this new unit, and I'm publishing my new code here.

Enjoy!