Debug perspective

The Debug perspective is where you test and debug a graphical representation of your message flows using the message flow debugger.

The Debug perspective contains the following views:

Debug view
Displays the deployed message flow types for a selected host to help you manage flow debugging. Toolbar buttons are provided for controlling the execution of the flow. You can start, stop, and resume a flow, step into, and out of a subflow, and step into the source code.

When you attach the flow debugger to the flow runtime engine, the Debug view displays the names of the following flow-related entities:

  • The host computer and the flow runtime engine that it is running. This is shown as a concatenation of the names of the following entities, delimited by colons.
    • The host computer
    • The integration node
    • The integration server
    • The flow engine
    The entry is identified by the flow runtime engine symbol. For example:
    • Flow Engine TestPC01:WMQIV5BR:TestExecution:DataFlowEngine
  • The flows that are deployed in the flow runtime engine, identified by the flow symbol, for example:
    • Message Flow TestFlow
  • When a breakpoint is reached, the flow instances that have been created for each flow, identified by the following symbol, for example:
    • Flow instance paused 3068 (Paused)

In the Debug view, you can perform the following debugging tasks:

  • Query a flow runtime engine for currently deployed flows
  • Detach a flow runtime engine from the flow debugger
  • Resume flow execution
  • Run to termination
  • Step over a node
  • Step into or out of a subflow
  • Step over, into, or out of, source code
Breakpoints view
Lists the breakpoints that have been set on connections in your message flow. In this view you can add, disable, enable or remove breakpoints. You can also restrict a breakpoint to one or more specific instances of a message flow using the Properties view.

The Breakpoints view and the Variables view share the same pane. Click one of the tabs to select the view that you want.

The Breakpoints view displays the breakpoints that are set in all instances of a selected flow. Each breakpoint is identified by one of two symbols (as also used in the Message Flow editor) as follows:

  • Enabled breakpoint breakpoint enabled
  • Disabled breakpoint breakpoint disabled

In the Breakpoints view, you can perform the following debugging tasks:

  • Remove breakpoints
  • Disable or enable breakpoints
  • Restrict breakpoints to one or more instances of a flow
Variables view
When a message flow is interrupted by a breakpoint, you can view the message content to check whether the message flow is executing as expected, and to make any changes required.

The Variables view and the Breakpoints view share the same pane. Click one of the tabs to select the view that you want.

The Variables view displays the messages that are currently traveling through the flow. Use the view to examine or change the content of a message in a flow during debugging.

Message Flow editor view
The Message Flow editor graphically displays and debugs flows. In this view you can add breakpoints to the connections of a message flow.

The Message Flow editor also displays any breakpoints that are set in the flow. Each breakpoint is identified by a symbol as follows:

  • Enabled breakpoint breakpoint enabled.
  • Disabled breakpoint breakpoint disabled.
  • Enabled paused breakpoint flow paused at breakpoint.

Also the editor displays the following symbol above a node:

  • Source code available flow paused at a node containing ESQL code or Java™ code that the flow debugger can step into

In the Integration Development perspective, the Message Flow editor is used to create, graphically display, and edit flows. For details of the other uses of this editor, see the description in Message Flow editor and the tasks in Defining message flow content.