step through your cfml code with fusiondebug charlie arehart [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
Topics
Introduction to Step Debugging FusionDebug Features FusionDebug Demo Benefits Over
CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT Other Features, Learning More,
Gotchas, Pricing, FAQs, etc.
About Your Speaker Independent consultant Since Sept 2006
Formerly CTO, New Atlanta (BlueDragon) 9 yrs CF experience (24 in Enterprise IT)
Member, Adobe Community Experts Co-author, ColdFusion MX Bible (Wiley)
Frequent contrib. to ColdFusion Dev Journal President, Atlanta ColdFusion User Group Past accomplishments of note
Tech Editor, CFDJ (2001-2003) Certified Adv CF Developer (4, 5, MX), Instructor
Frequent speaker: UGs, conf’s worldwide
Introduction to Step Debugging Understanding interactive
debugging What can it do for you?
Past debugging solutions (CF4, 5) No current or discussed plans for
CFMX FusionDebug from Intergral
CFML step debugging for CFMX 6.1/7+
About FusionDebug Is an Eclipse (3.1, 3.2) plug-in
You don’t NEED to use Eclipse for editing Can continue to edit in DWMX, CF Studio,
HomeSite+, etc. Do need to download Eclipse
or use with Flex Builder, which is Eclipse; or CFEclipse if you have it installed already
Requires just a minor change in JVM config for CFMX server Add a couple JVM entries, name a port for
debugger to listen on You then do a minor setup in Eclipse to
enable debugging against that server All of the above is well-documented in the
FusionDebug User Guide, free online
FusionDebug Features Can step through code, including tags, functions,
CFCs, includes, custom tags, and so on As well as stepping through a page, you can also Step
Into (or out of) sub tags, CFC calls and function calls Can list all variable and scopes
View all scopes available to your page and view anything stored within. See values change as you step through page
Expression Watcher Create arbitrary expressions, from simply outputting a
variable to showing the result of an if condition and the Expression Watcher will dynamically evaluate them
Query Support Open queries to see row data, column names and data
types. Also, when looping through a query the Current Query feature lets you know exactly which row you’re on
FusionDebug Demo
Let’s see it in action
Demo Features Enabled debugging, stepping through
code Enabled watches and setting variables
can do with right-click on var/expression Showed simple cf code (CF Example
Apps) Set variables on the fly Showed query data in variables pane
Showed CFC-based code (Model Glue) Showed scopes available in CFC methods
var and this scopes Showed how stack is interactive
click to jump to lines in chain above current instruction
Showed debugging web service code Showed debugging Flex apps
Benefits Over CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT Can debug when a CFOUTPUT/CFDUMP may not be
possible What are some examples?
CFCOMPONENT/CFFUNCTION OUTPUT=false CFSILENT When generating XML
What other tags may help in the above cases? Can debug without having to rely on finding the output
of CFLOG or CFTRACE (or enabling the latter) Can debug without needing to change code Can debug requests from Flex, Ajax, or as web
service Can debug when someone besides the developer is
calling a template Can debug against production Can debug on remote machine Can change the value of variables on the fly during
execution
Benefits Over CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT Can debug in situations where a
simple CFOUTPUT/CFDUMP would not suffice (powerful Variables, Expressions panes)
Can use the debugger to understand the flow of execution of the request (help newcomers to your code, or to CFML in general)
Can debug in situations where you don't even know where in a complex app to try to do CFOUTPUT or CFDUMP
Benefits Over CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT Can view call stack during
execution Can view the Java classes called
to execute your code See
http://www.fusion-reactor.com/fusiondebug/support.html#config2
And that’s not even all of them
Other Features Flex and FusionDebug
Can work alongside the Flex Debugger to debug any ColdFusion (.cfc) code being used within a Flex project
Debugging perspectives switch automatically between debugging Flex and CFML
Can also debug CFCs called from Flex even without using FlexBuilder
Can debug CFCs called from Flex, Flash Remoting, Ajax, web services, or CFMX gateways (SMS, event, etc.) as they call CFCs
Learning More Documentation (very good) available
online www.Fusiondebug.com User guide walks through configuration of the
CF Server, Eclipse, and use of FusionDebug Several Captivate demos
Available CFML templates to test with Great to get started, to work through initial
introductory features and challenges Rather than jumping into the middle of
debugging a big app as your first test I’ve started a series of blog entries on it
http://carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/fusiondebug
Gotchas: Using FD Breakpoints remain alive for any user (not just
debugging developer) if debug session active If any user runs the request—they will see page hang Only developer with FD open sees it’s stopped on line This is unlike CF4/5 debugging, so be aware Can use “skip all breakpoints” option to temporarily disable
in multi-user environments Be careful holding breakpoint within CFLOCK or
CFTRANSACTION tags for too long (impacts other users in other pages)
Can set breakpoint on non-CFML or blank line, but won’t fire May not fire if on CFSCRIPT or CFRETURN and in some other
instances See:
http://www.fusion-reactor.com/fusiondebug/support.html#breakpoints4
Can try to “set variable” for query column but won’t take When setting variable that can be eval’ed as expression
(555-0002), will do math so surround it in quotes to coerce as string
Gotchas: FD Setup FD has only minor impact when debugging not
active, due to changes made in jvm.config So can run in production, but perhaps should think
twice When setting port in Debug settings, it should
be that for FD, not the web server serving CFML pages
If using FusionReactor (Intergral’s CF monitor tool), should disable “crash protection” feature
If you CFEclipse and don’t see line pointer highlighted, can configure that See
http://www.fusion-reactor.com/fusiondebug/support.html#cfeclipse2
Firewalls or port restrictions can get in the way sometimes
Troubleshooting If you see no CIP moving with debugging
be sure to associate debug session source code properties with a project, not the filesystem (see docs for steps)
If debugging just stops, you may have the CFMX page request timeout that’s killing the page See Admin “Timeout Requests after x seconds” This is disabled by default in 6.1, enabled by
default in 7 If a runtime error occurs, FD will also seem
to stop (but error has been sent to the browser)
A few others listed in docs (above items are not, currently)
Pricing, Discounts, Trials
List price: US$ 299 Available 10% Discount Code:
CFCOMMUNITY Priced per seat, available volume
discounts Available free trial (20 days) I’ve arranged 2 licenses to give
away tonight
FAQs Does FusionDebug work with BlueDragon?
Not currently. They are in talks But you could install free Dev edition of CFMX and
debug against that Does it work with CF4 or 5?
No, it is specific to CFMX Can it work without Eclipse?
No, it is specific to Eclipse Must I use/learn how to use Eclipse?
Nothing more than what I’ve shown here, really Must I use/learn how to use CFEclipse?
No, FusionDebug is not connected to CFEclipse You can use your favorite CFML editor to edit Just use FD to do debugging
How do I get support? Intergral offers free email support: support@fusion-
reactor.com What’s with the name/spelling “Intergral”?
Formed from Internet and Integration
Conclusion Great solution, finally, for CFML
debugging Sure, it costs money, but will pay for
itself if you’ll benefit from debugging Some debugging naysayers. To each his
own Intergral support has been great
Available free support at [email protected]
Very interested in supporting community
Questions on presentation Charlie Arehart
Also available for setup and implementation consulting As well as other developer
productivity coaching, system admin and tuning support , and more
Remote or on-site