Preferences for debugging Java™ and mixed languages and WebSphere® Application Server include mixed language debugging enablement, step-by-step debug mode enablement, and setting step and step-by-step filters (which are lists of packages, classes, etc. that you do not want to stop in when stepping or debugging in step-by-step mode).
Selecting Window > Preferences from the workbench menu bar opens the Preferences dialog box. In this dialog box, you can choose the Run/Debug node to set a variety of debug preferences for your Java debug session. In addition, you can set the following preferences for debugging Java and mixed languages - and Web objects and other elements that are running on a WebSphere Application Server:
In the Java and Mixed Language Debug preference page, you can set mixed language debug preferences in the Mixed Language Debug section, as follows:
In the Java and Mixed Language Debug preference page, you can set step-by-step debug preferences in the Step-by-Step section, as follows:
In the Preferences dialog box, selecting Run/Debug > Java and Mixed Language Debug > Step Filtering will open the Step Filtering page. In this page, you can set Java step filter preferences, and step-by-step filter preferences for Web objects.
With step filters, you can avoid debugging external packages that your code depends on, so that you only debug your application. The step filters affect step into and step return - and are independent of the step-by-step filters. Step filtering can be turned on by selecting the Use step filtering check box.
Step-by-step filters are applied when debugging Web objects. The debugger will not stop at objects that are filtered out. To enable step-by-step debugging for Web objects, select the check box next to the Web Objects element in the Java and Mixed Language Debug preference page.
If you want to use step-by-step debug mode by default when you launch a debug session, select the Enable step-by-step debug mode by default check box. You can also disable step-by-step mode for the current debug session by selecting the Disable step-by-step mode check box when the Step-by-Step Debug dialog box appears while debugging.
WebSphere Runtime libraries are always active regardless of step-by-step filter or step filter settings. To avoid debugging runtime libraries, you can use runtime filters. Runtime filters cannot be added or removed. To disable the filtering of runtime packages, deselect the filters under the WebSphere Runtime filters list.
In the Step Filtering page, you can add and remove filters, as follows:
To temporarily disable a defined filter, deselect its check box. Or, to disable all defined filters, click Disable All. To enable a filter that you have disabled, select its check box - or click Enable All to enable all filters.
In the Preferences dialog box, selecting Run/Debug > Java and Mixed Language Debug > Thread Filters will open the Thread Filters page. In this page, you can set Java thread filter preferences.
To filter Java threads from the Debug view, select the Apply thread filters and Java Threads check boxes. When Java threads are filtered, they will not show up in the Debug view unless a debug event (for example, a breakpoint) occurs within them.