Debugging a process in the desktop Process Designer (deprecated)

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Use the Inspector debugging feature to examine each underlying process or service in each step of your process execution to perform a more thorough inspection than stepping through your process.

About this task

The Inspector executes a debugging session in a browser window. As you step through an underlying process or service in the debug session in your browser, the Inspector interface shows the same progress in its diagram view and navigation tree.

You can use the information from the debugging process to help identify the point at which a process instance is not functioning as expected.

To perform this task, you must be in the IBM® Process Designer desktop editor, which is deprecated.

Note: To learn more about the Inspector interface before you begin, see Inspector reference.

Procedure

  1. Open a business process definition (BPD) in IBM Process Designer.
  2. Click Run.
  3. When IBM Business Automation Workflow prompts you to change to the Inspector view, click Yes.
    Note: Select the check box if you want IBM Process Designer to change interfaces without prompting for approval.
  4. In the Process Instances tab, click the new task, and then click Debug task. Depending on the task implementation, complete the steps in one of the following procedures:
    • If the task that you are debugging is implemented as a client-side human service, the client-side human service Inspector opens in a browser window, pausing on the first step after the Start event. Complete the following steps to debug the client-side human service:
      1. When prompted, select the user that you want to debug the client-side human service as. You can choose to debug the service as the user that claimed the task or as a different user. For a different user, the user name that you select must belong to a user group that has read access to the corresponding process application. You are logged in to the web browser using the selected user name.
      2. Use the actions on the sidebar to proceed with the debugging of the client-side human service. See Debugging client-side human services.
      3. Before running each step in the service flow, examine the variable values that are displayed on the sidebar at each point to determine whether they are expected.
      4. To move to the next activity in the service flow, click Step Over Step Over.
      5. If this activity is a coach, complete the coach and trigger the boundary event to transition out of the coach. The Inspector moves to the next step in the service flow.
      6. (Optional) To view the progress of the service execution, you can click the Designer tab in the upper-left corner of the browser window. On the client-side human service diagram, the followed path is highlighted and a color-coded token marks the current position in the service flow.
      7. Complete the debugging of the client-side human service in the Inspector browser window.
      8. When the debugging of the client-side human service is complete, go back to the BPD Inspector window and click Refresh Refresh to update the task status accordingly. The Inspector moves to the next step in the process flow. At the same time, the Inspector shows progress through the service, using tokens in the diagram and navigation tree.
    • If the task that you are debugging is not implemented as a client-side human service, complete the following steps to debug the service:
      1. If the service does not require user input, click Run to run all code and logic and then view the end values.
      2. If the service requires user input, use the Step button and complete the fields for any associated coaches to step through each part of the service.
      The BPD Inspector opens a debugging session in a browser window. At the same time, the Inspector opens the currently executing service in the Services in Debug tab and shows progress through the service, using tokens in the diagram and navigation tree.
  5. To continue through the rest of your BPD, click the Process Instances tab in the Inspector, and then repeat the actions in step 4.
    In the debugger session in your browser, you can see data that you enter into any displayed coaches and the values that cause the underlying logic in the services and BPD to proceed along the available paths. This insight can be extremely helpful when issues are identified and you need to find the point at which a process instance is not functioning as you expected.