Debug Console (ifs app8)

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Debug ConsoleSome grammatical errors and unclear sentences  (marked). Use of IEE.
All the menu commands, tab names, button names etc  should be formatted.
Documentation should be written in 2nd person  (you) instead of "user", "developer" etc
There is no description on how to start the debug  console
The Debug Console is an analysis tool assisting developers and support teams  to debug Enterprise Explorer. The Debug Console can be used for analyzing client  as well as server traces.
This guide describes how the Debug Console works.
Contents

• Using the Debug Console
• Running the debug console under different modes
• Configuring modes
• Tracing Custom APF Messages
• Analyzing the server trace
• Analyzing PLSQL Invokes
• Using Copy/Copy Special
• Creating a memory dump  
• Remote Debugging
  

Using the Debug ConsoleThe Debug Console consist of three sections.

• Toolbar
• List view for traces.
• Panel section showing detailed information for a selected record.
  

In the toolbar you can do the following:

• Switch debug mode.
• Attach / Detach debugger.
• Clear trace list.
• Add page break to trace list
• Set all filters to show everything.
• Clear all entries in the filter boxes.
• Export trace to XML.
• Toggle detail panes (horizontal/vertical orientation).
  

Below the toolbar is the filtering panel which consist of one group box for  each column that is visible in the trace view. The group boxes are populated  with all unique entries that has been displayed in the corresponding column. If  a group box is not empty then the user may filter the trace output by one of the  unique entries that can be found. Filtering can be applied on multiple columns  simultaneously if desired.
Underneath the filtering pane is the main trace window in which all traces  are outputted. Each item in the list can be selected. When an item is selected  in the trace view more detailed information related to the item is shown below  the trace window. The information section consists of a number of customizable  panes (user may choose to hide/show panes by configuring the modes) showing more  detailed and formatted information related to the trace item.


Running the debug console under different modes
The debug console can be run under different modes. Three predefined modes  exists in the mode selection box. The predefined modes are the following;

• Framework: Focused on the framework developers. Most of the trace  options are enabled to make the debug console outputs as much as possible.  Translations is the only option that is not enabled in this mode as default.

• Application: Focused on the application developers. Only outputs  traces related to application forms. Both client and server traces are enabled  but server traces are only focused on application forms.

• Translation: Focused on tracing translations in EE. Translations  mode disables most of the client traces in EE and all of the server traces. Only  traces for translations are shown in this mode as default.
Note: As the number of translations is fairly high the user should note that it  might affect the performance of the application when running in this mode.

Default settings for the predefined modes are listed in the table below.

Configuring modes

Each debug mode that is available in the  Debug Console can be configured. Navigate to the Tools menu and then select the  “Configure modes…” menu item. This will open up the options dialog in which the  user can configure the modes’.

The upper part of the options dialog is  a area dedicated for switching, creating and removing modes. The selection box  contains all modes that are currently available in the Debug Console. The area  below the selection box reflects the settings that apply for the currently  selected mode. Selecting another mode from the selection box will cause the  dialog to change the settings located in the the tab windows to the values that  applies for the selected mode.

If a user has done changes to one of the preconfigured  modes (Application, Framework or Translation) and saved the changes. The name of  the mode is extended with "(Mod)", indicating that the mode has been modified  from its default configuration. The "Reset Mode" button located in the bottom  left section of the dialog is enabled when a predefined mode is modified.  Pressing this button will cause the currently selected predefined mode to be  reset to the default values that applies for that mode

Note: Default values are "hard coded" and cannot be  changed from within the Debug Console.

Creating and configuring custom modesBesides configuring the three default modes, users can  also create their own custom mode. In the upper section in the "Configure modes"  dialog there is a button marked with a plus sign. By pressing this button the  user is presented with an input dialog in which the user is asked to enter the  name for the new mode. Pressing OK will create a new custom mode. A prefix of a  star symbol (*) is added to the name for the custom mode to mark that it is a  custom mode. The user can select the new mode from the mode selection box in the  options dialog as well as from the selection box in the main debug console  window.

Note: A  custom mode does not have any default settings which the user can reset the mode  to. So the “Reset Mode” button located in the bottom of the options dialog is  always disabled when configuring a custom mode.

Tracing custom APF messages

Client trace messages can be added by calling the  Ifs.Fnd.FndTrace.WriteLine function, these will end up in the Feature  cathegory.

Client Call Stack shows all method calls inside client.  This can be very useful to track client-side problems.

Analyzing the server trace

Traces related to server calls often contain trace  information received from the server. This information can be found in the  "Server Trace"-tab. The top section of this pane contains two check  boxes that are related to how the server trace text is filtered. If none of the  two check boxes are selected, which they aren't by default, results in that the  entire trace received from the server is show in the text area below the check  boxes. grammar

The two filtering modes are the following:

• PL/SQL Invokes: Filters out PL/SQL invoke statements from the server trace.
• PL/SQL Trace: Filters out PL/SQL method traces from the server trace. This filtering mode also performs a formatting on the result to clarify the timestamps and method names.
  
  

Analyzing PL/SQL Invokes
When a user of IFS Enterprise Explorer conducts an operation that results in a server invoke, two  significant trace messages are sent to the debug console. The first message,  highlighted in green in the picture below (highlighting is done for  documentation purpose and will not be present in runtime), is traced from the  application level. The second one comes when the requested operation has been  invoked. When analyzing PL/SQL invokes, the focus should be put on the later  trace message, as both the request and response information is contained within  that trace message. The second trace does however not contain the names for the  parameters that were used in the application code. In order for the user to know  which parameter is which he needs to check for them in the first message.
The PL/SQL Details tab is dedicated for showing the command information of  the server invoke. The command is shown in the first field while the parameter  information are shown in the table below. Response values for the parameters are shown in the  last column in the parameter table.
Note: One server invoke may contain more that one command in which case the  previous and next buttons should be used for iterating through them.

Analyzing Exceptions
Exceptions do sometimes occur, and when they do occur, they are highlighted  in a red color in the trace message list. The exception information can be found  in the server trace if the user unchecked both of the filtering options located  in the "Server trace"-tab.


Scanning though the server trace is often time-consuming so there's also the  possibility to open the Exceptions-tab in which a filtering of the server trace  has been done. The filtering filters out the most common client and server exceptions.

Note: All exceptions are not shown in the Exceptions-tab. In those cases the  user should search for them in the server trace.
Using Copy/Copy Special
Copy / Copy special functionality adds support for copying the PL/SQL code  from a trace message (categories as "Server Invoke [PL/SQL Command]") and converting it into an executable code snippet.  All bind variables in the snippet are set so that the code snippet is ready for  execution.

The copy/copy special functionality is located under the PL/SQL Detail tab that  can be enabled from the options dialog. Pressing the Copy button will format the  current statement into an executable one, making it possible to run in e.g.  SQL/Plus or PL/SQL Developer. Copy Special works the same as Copy but only available for PL/SQL statements as  it will also include a “Dbms_Output” section (printing out trace information),  making it possible to trace the output in whatever external tool used.

  
Creating a memory dump
Creating a memory dump will save the current state of the application into a  dump file.  To create a memory dump from within the debug console, users can navigate to  the debug console menu and under the Tools menu select “Create memory dump…”. The file can then be used for debugging and analysis of the current  state of the application. Support personnel can use the memory dump for  debugging. The memory dumps can e.g. be used by developer to see the exact  version of files that are being used in the application and thereby exclude  possible error sources. Developer can also use the file to rebuild the entire  environment and try and run the same application locally in order to reproduce  the errors.
Remote Debugging

Prerequisites:

• Grant role FND_DEVELOPER to user IFSSYS.
  
  Note: The application server will most likely require a restart for the changes to take place.
  
  

Setup in Developer Studio

• Make sure to debug compile the package you want to debug.
• Set breakpoint where you want to stop. Make sure to do this in Database Source, source is grey (This can be done via the context menu by selecting "Go To Database Source").
• Select "Attach debugger..." from the the Debug menu.
• Specify the  connection information in the Attach-dialog and make sure the  Connector-field is set to "SocketAttach".
  
  

Setup in IFS Enterprise Explorer

• Open the debug console from the Tools menu.
• In debug console, navigate to the configuration dialog and open the "Remote Debugging"-tab.
• Specify the host address and port you want to connect to and then save the changes  and close the dialog.
• Remote debugging is now configured and breakpoints should be hit when server invokes are made.