Debugging a process

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 tree view.

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

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

Procedure

Open a business process definition (BPD) in IBM® Process Designer.
Click the Run icon.
When IBM Business Process Manager prompts you to change to the Inspector interface, click Yes.
Note: Click the check box if you want IBM Process Designer to change interfaces without prompting for approval.
Optional: To view instances running on a different server or to view instances for a different version of the business process, see Viewing instances on a different server.
In the Process Instances tab, click the new task and then click the Debug task icon as shown in the following example.
The Inspector opens a debugging session in a browser window, as shown in the following example:

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 tree view. In the following example, you can see the token is on the Create job requisition step of the Submit Requisition service.
Debug the service.
- If the service does not require user input, click Run to run all code and logic and then view the end values.
- 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.
To continue through the rest of your BPD, click the Process Instances tab in the Inspector and then repeat the actions from Step 5 and Step 6. In the debugger session in your browser, you can see data that you enter into any displayed Coaches as well as 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 expected.