Debugger


JDesignerPro includes a debugger for stepping through your application modules and helping you add and modify custom code. If you are familiar with standard debuggers, you’ll feel at home here. We do not attempt to teach you how to use a debugger in this text. Please refer to development books about that topic for detailed instruction.

Along the top of the debugger are several buttons for the main functions. The first three are Start, Restart and Stop application. When you start an application it will launch in a separate window. Before the screen appears, JDesignerPro will bring up a small window showing the progress of the launch. JDesignerPro does an automatic login and load inside the debugger.

Use the Search field to search for partial and complete string searches. The Search field is case sensitive. Type any searchable text in the field and press Enter on your keyboard. When the last instance of a string is found you must press Enter again to restart the search from the beginning.

The set of four buttons immediately to the right of the Search panel are for setting and removing break points. The first enables a breakpoint at the highlighted line in the code. Button two will remove all breakpoints. Buttone three and four disable the current or all breakpoints, respectively. They are toggle buttons that will re-enable the current one or all if disabled.

Of the the last set of buttons, the first three allow you to step into, around and out of methods in the code during a debug session. The fourth in the group gives you the ability to run to a certain line.

The Open file button brings up an Open dialogue to allow you to open any java class file you wish to run in the debugger.

There are some limitations on this debugger. It can show only variables that are local to the method you are in and the value of variables cannot be changed. Global variables are not supported currently. It cannot be used on Server Commands. You can use the debugger on application modules that use the Server Command Object and run everything else in the debugger except the Server Command.