(Submitted by Rob Dunfey, ArcGIS Explorer Dev Team)

When designing the ArcGIS Explorer API, above all we wanted to make it as simple and easy to use as possible, so people with no development experience would be able to develop their own custom tasks. If this is the first time you have developed using Visual Studio, here are some steps that will help you debug your Explorer custom task.

• Build your custom task.
• Open ArcGIS Explorer and add your custom task to the map.
• Save your new map.
• Open the Tools > Options dialog, and set the application to "Open the last saved map" when ArcGIS Explorer starts, then close ArcGIS Explorer.
  
  



• Inside your custom task Visual Studio solution, open your project properties dialog. This can be done from the project menu.
• On the debug tab you will notice a start action to "Start an external program." Check this radio button and use the browse button to select the path of the ArcGIS Explorer excutable (E2.exe). It will similar to:
  
  C:\Program Files\ArcGIS Explorer\Bin\E2.exe
  
  



• Now click the Run button to start debugging, or press F5. Explorer will start, and open with the last saved map that references your custom task. You can now run your task and step through it using the Visual Studio debugger.