I cannot seem to access my Web References after upgrading a VS.Net 2003 Web Project to VS.Net 2005 using the released version of Web Application Projects.

I get "Custom tool error: Unable to import WebService/Schema. Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

when I try to Update a Web Reference I get the error "The custom tool 'MSDiscoCodeGenerator' failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object".

Thanks
Richard.

There is a known issue where you can get into this state if the settings.settings file ever gets deleted, or is missing, and dynamic urls are used.  The fix is to open the Settings.settings file (just double-click it). You should see entries similar to the following for you dynamic urls.

Name                                Type                       Scope     Value
     
MyApp_localhost_Service   (Web Service URL)   User        http://localhost:2305/WebSite8/Service.asmx

Notice the type field - it needs to be set to "(WebService URL)"  - one of the choices in the type dropdown. Most likely it is set to be of type String and this what causes the error.

Can you try this? We are looking at getting this fixed for SP1 of Visual Studio (it is an issue in the core VS code base so WAP cannot fix it directly.)

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

After the conversion from 2003 to 2005 the settings.settings file only has the following in

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<SettingsFile xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2004/01/settings" CurrentProfile="(Default)">
  <Profiles />
  <Settings />
</SettingsFile>

All the dynamic web references from my 2003 project are still in my web.config in the <appSetting> element?

Do I have to manually move them? I would have thought the conversion would have dealt with this?

In my web.config I had entries like this
<add key="Cust-Conn.WSAccount.Account" value="http://localhost/i-conn/wwcd/WSLedger/Account.asmx"/> for my web reference.

I cannot seem to add this key to the settings.settings file, i get the error "Cust-Conn.WSAccount.Account is not a valid identifier"


Thanks
Richard.

Can you try Updating your web references and then open the settings.settings file?

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

btw: this post highlights some of the differences is proxy generation and web.config settings between VS03 WAP and Web Sites.

http://weblogs.asp.net/bradleyb/archive/2006/05/04/445133.aspx

Hope this helps,
Brad.

I tried updating the web reference and I get the error

"The custom tool "MSDiscoCodeGenerator' failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

I also tried changing the web reference to Static (which it does ok) and back to dynamic and I get the error

"Property value is not valid" and in the detail box the above error again about MSDiscoCodeGenerator.

Thanks
Richard.

What happens if you delete the settings file and  re-update your web references? They will probably generate the same error, but you should be able to open the settings file and fix up the type. At least, this seemed to work for me when I tried it here. If not please reply to the post and I'll follow up with the owners of the code to see if there is something else you can try.

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

When I tried this I get the same error

"The custom tool "MSDiscoCodeGenerator' failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

and the Settings.Settings file just contains the following, no mention of web reference to fix up?

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<SettingsFile xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2004/01/settings" CurrentProfile="(Default)">
  <Profiles>
    <Profile Name="(Default)" />
  </Profiles>
</SettingsFile>

Thanks
Richard.

When you opened your settings file, did it tell you that new values from app.config (actually web.config) will be added? Try one more thing. Dynamic url information is stored in web.config as well. You will see an entry like the following:

<

sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >

      <

section name="WebApplication2.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />

</

sectionGroup>

Back up your web.config and then do the following:

1) Delete settings.settings

2) Open web.config and Delete the entry that look like:  <section name="WebApplication2.Properties.Settings"

3) Further down in the web.config you should will see the following, with one <Setting> per web reference. Remove all the web references from there.

<

applicationSettings>

<

WebApplication2.Properties.Settings>

<

setting name="WebApplication2_localhost_Service" serializeAs="String">

<

value>http://localhost:4677/WebSite2/Service.asmx</value>

</

setting>

</

WebApplication2.Properties.Settings>

</

applicationSettings>4). Now do an Update Web Reference. Does it work now?

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

When I opened my settings file, it didn't tell me that new values from  web.config will be added.

I also tried what you said but when I try to update the web reference I get the error

"The custom tool 'MSDiscoCodeGenerator' failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

I do get a new Settings.Settings file but it only contains the following

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<SettingsFile xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2004/01/settings" CurrentProfile="(Default)">
  <Profiles>
    <Profile Name="(Default)" />
  </Profiles>
</SettingsFile>

I

Many thanks for looking at this for me.
Richard.

Do you see any of the application settings enties in web.config? Can you try backing up your web.config somewhere, and then delete the one in your project. Delete the settings.settings file as well. Now try updating your web references. Does this work? If not, can you again delete web.config and the settiings file, and your web references, and then re-add those references?

I should have asked earlier, but which version of WAP do you have installed?  You can check the version using help\about and selecting Web Applicaton projects - it will be displayed in the details section. Is it the latest (Version 8.0.60501.00)?

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

I do not see any application settings entries in the web.config.

I deleted the web.config and settings.settings and tried to update the web reference and i received the same error

"The custom tool 'MSDiscoCodeGenerator' failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

I then deleted the web.config, settings.settings and all web references, saved the project and then attempted to add the web reference. It doesn't complain when you add it but there are no settings in settings.settings and no web.config is created. There is no Reference.cs file generated. When you then atttempt to update the web reference you get the same error as above.

I seem to have a later version of WAP ?

Version 8.0.60504.00

I tried a new small test WAP project and I can add the same Web reference without a problem, it just seems to be my converted project (2003 to 2005)that has the problem?

Thanks

Richard.

Your version number is correct (I was looking the build just prior to the release). I am pretty much out of ideas. I can't explain why it would work in a new web and not in your other web. Can you try one more thing? Add a new WAP project to your solution and add the web references. Now copy the web.config and settings files from this new project to your existing project (just drag n drop them in the solution explorer). Now try updating your web references in the existing web (or better yet remove them first before adding the web.config and settings file). Does this work?

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

Sorry, No, I still get the error?

Thanks
Richard.

Hi,

I have found the answer. I deleted files from my project one by one and discovered the error is caused by a .resx file which contains a empty data element. Very strange!

To reproduce, if you add a resx file with the following Xml into your solution and try to update any web reference you will get the error( although you might need to close and reopen VS.NET). It is the 'empty' data element that causes the problem, I'm not sure how it got there as you can't edit it using the default editor.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
    <xsd:schema id="root" xmlns="" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata">
        <xsd:element name="root" msdata:IsDataSet="true">
            <xsd:complexType>
                <xsd:choice maxOccurs="unbounded">
                    <xsd:element name="data">
                        <xsd:complexType>
                            <xsd:sequence>
                                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
                                <xsd:element name="comment" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="2" />
                            </xsd:sequence>
                            <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" />
                            <xsd:attribute name="type" type="xsd:string" />
                            <xsd:attribute name="mimetype" type="xsd:string" />
                        </xsd:complexType>
                    </xsd:element>
                    <xsd:element name="resheader">
                        <xsd:complexType>
                            <xsd:sequence>
                                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
                            </xsd:sequence>
                            <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" use="required" />
                        </xsd:complexType>
                    </xsd:element>
                </xsd:choice>
            </xsd:complexType>
        </xsd:element>
    </xsd:schema>
    <resheader name="ResMimeType">
        <value>text/microsoft-resx</value>
    </resheader>
    <resheader name="Version">
        <value>1.0.0.0</value>
    </resheader>
    <resheader name="Reader">
        <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=1.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
    </resheader>
    <resheader name="Writer">
        <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=1.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
    </resheader>
      <data name="PriceCat.Row">
        <value>internal_menus</value>
    </data>
  <data name="">
  </data>
   </root>

Thanks for your help
Richard.

Glad you figured it out. I have no idea why that would cause the custom tool to fail. I'll pass this information on to the team which owns that tool.

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

Glad to hear you figured it out. I have no idea why that would cause the tool to fail. I will pass this information on to the owners of the custom tool.

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

We have been able to repro this here and a bug has been opened to get this fixed. Thanks again for your report and persistence in tracking this down.

---

Bill Hiebert

Visual Studio Web Tools

I also found out that if you do not have a Web.config file (on a custom controls type of project) the tool also fail due to the fact that it can not update the web.config file with the application configuration info needed to set the Url property on the web reference.

Hi

Was there a fix for this?  I stepped through all the suggestions here and still can't re-import my WSDL file.

Thanks,

-Mike