Enable bundling and minification in debug mode in ASP.NET MVC 4

Question

I can't believe I cannot find other questions about this, but: how does one enable bundling in debug mode? I know how it is enabled for release mode, but in debug mode I cannot find a way to enable the bundling.

Is this even possible or am I missing something?

Answer 1

You can enable this by adding

BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true;

in your RegisterBundles method (BundleConfig class in the App_Start folder).

check http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-4/bundling-and-minification for more info

You could also change your web.config:

<system.web>
    <compilation debug="false" />
</system.web>

But this would disable debug mode entirely so I would recommend the first option.

Finally, to get the best of both worlds, use the #if compiler directive like this:

#if DEBUG
            BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = false;
#else
            BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true;
#endif

Answer 2

add BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true; in Application_Start() method of Global.asax file

Answer 3

In Global.asax add BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);

 protected void Application_Start()
        {
            AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

            WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
            FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
            RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
            BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles); // add this
        }

Answer 4

The official MS site states while Debugging it's not possible to enable it. I think the reason is, that it's easier to debug while it's disabled. If you want to test the Impact on your application you have to set <compilation debug="true" /> in the Web.config

@Hebe: To Quote the MS page

It's easy to debug your JavaScript in a development environment (where the compilation Element in the Web.config file is set to debug="true" ) because the JavaScript files are not bundled or minified.