Debugging business logic is a multistep process of tracking and eliminating errors in your business solution. The steps include:

  1. Identify the problem
  2. Find the root cause
  3. Fix the problem

Debugging is important to determine the reasons for misbehaving solutions. It ensures its quality by resolving the identified issues.

After finding an error at the testing phase, it will go to the debugging phase to be fixed. However, if you manually look through the solution step-by-step, it is inefficient and can result a delay in your project.

“Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer.” – Filipe Fortes

To make this detective work easier and the whole process smoother, you will require to utilize effective tools and techniques.

Why a Visual Debugger?

A visual debugger can make the debugging process easy and efficient by providing additional capabilities. The following table shows how it helps to navigate through the model to find the issue, inspect and fix it.

NavigationInspection
  • See the step-by-step process of execution of your solution
  • Jump into a specific step
  • Step into the child models of a specific model
  • See the changes in the values during each step
  • Track the exact position of a particular error
  • Input specific data you want to test
  • Pause and try expressions at any point of the execution

As a result,

  • You can efficiently find the root cause of an error
  • It improves the accuracy of fixing the issue

In the advanced authoring environment of FlexRule® Advanced Decision Management Suite, the following options are available for navigation and inspection.

  • Break mode
  • Breakpoints
  • Inspection windows (Parameter window and Watch window)

Let’s discuss those options further.

Break Mode (Drilldown, Step in, and Step over)

The visual debugger can put a model into break mode for debugging giving you full control over execution steps. Once you start debugging you can go to the next step, pause, or stop at any time.

The following image shows how the yellow highlighting marks the next step of a debugging process in break mode.

If your model has multiple levels, you can either choose to step in in order to drill down to each level and debug or step over to skip debugging the linked model and go to the next step.

Multistep flow

Breakpoints

If you want to skip a few steps and navigate to a specific step, you can use the breakpoints.

For example, if your model has 10 steps, and you want to have a closer look at step 9, you can set a breakpoint at step 9. Then once the debugging process starts, you can choose to jump into step 9 with a single click. In this way, step 1 to 8 will be executed and paused at step 9 waiting for your instructions to proceed.

Value and Parameters Inspection

For inspecting parameters, values and expressions you can use,

Conclusion

Debugging business logic can be time-consuming. Sometimes, it may take a longer time to debug than building a solution itself. That is why a visual debugger can be helpful. With the additional options such as breakpoints, and inspection windows the developers can save time in both navigation and inspection parts of debugging. A visual debugger improves the efficiency and accuracy of the debugging process. It ensures the quality of your solution giving more time to the developers to focus on modeling business logic.

Last updated September 2nd, 2022 at 09:34 am, Published November 5th, 2020 at 09:34 am