When you are building a PowerBuilder custom class user object as an EAServer component, you can use the PowerBuilder debugger to debug the EAServer component. You can debug the component whether you use the live editing feature in the User Object painter or deploy the component to EAServer from the Project painter.
For more information about live editing, see “Live editing”.
Before you begin debugging a remote component, check that your configuration meets the following requirements:
You are using the same version of the application and PBLs as were used to develop the deployed component. If you want to debug several deployed components in the same session, they must all have been built using the same versions of the PBLs, the same application name, and the same library list.
The Supports Remote Debugging check box on the Components properties page in the Project painter is checked. You can also set the debugging option by checking the Supports Remote Debugging check box in the Project wizard.
You have a client application that exercises the methods and properties in the deployed components. This can be a compiled executable built with any compatible development tool or a PowerBuilder application running in another PowerBuilder session.
When you debug an EAServer target, the set of components that can be debugged is determined from the project. The set includes all components selected on the Components page in the Project painter for which the Remote Debugging check box is selected. If you want to select a different set of components or debug components from more than one package, select Debug>Select Components from the menu bar in the debugger or click the Select Components button on the PainterBar.
To begin debugging, open the target that contains the deployed components. Click the Start Remote Debugging button in the PainterBar and complete the wizard. You can select only components that were generated in PowerBuilder with remote debugging support turned on. Remote debugging support is a security setting that does not add any debugging information to the component. You turn remote debugging support on when you are testing a component, then turn it off when you deploy the component to a user’s site to prevent users from stepping into and examining your code.
Set breakpoints as you would when debugging a local application, then start the client application that invokes the remote components (if it is not already running).
You will notice two major differences between debugging local and remote applications:
When you start the debugger, it does not minimize.
The new Instances view shows each instance of the components you are debugging. For each instance, it shows the component and package names, an instance number, and its current state: running, idle, or stopped. If there is more than one instance, a yellow arrow indicates which one is currently being debugged.
Unsupported features
The Objects In Memory view, expression evaluation, and changing
variable values are not supported.
The instances view shows the state of each instance of each component:
When an instance is destroyed, it is removed from the Instances view.
Multiple component instances can be stopped at the same time, but actions you take in the debugger act only on the first instance that hits a breakpoint. This instance is indicated by a yellow arrow in the Instances view. The current instance changes to the next instance in the queue when the method completes or when you click Continue.
You can also change context from one instance to another by double-clicking the new instance in the Instances view. You might want to do this if you step over a call to another component instance and the Instances view shows that the called instance stopped.
