Step Through Your CFML Code With FusionDebug

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Step Through Your CFML Code With FusionDebug

• Charlie Arehartcharlie_at_carehart.org

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Topics

• Introduction to Step Debugging
• FusionDebug Features
• FusionDebug Demo
• Benefits Over CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT
• Other Features, Learning More, Gotchas, Pricing,
  FAQs, etc.

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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, confs worldwide

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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

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About FusionDebug

• Is an Eclipse (3.1, 3.2) plug-in
• You dont 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

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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 youre on

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FusionDebug Demo

• Lets see it in action

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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

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Benefits Over CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT

• Can debug when a CFOUTPUT/CFDUMP may not be
  possible
• What are some examples?
• CFCOMPONENT/CFFUNCTION OUTPUTfalse
• 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

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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

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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/supp
  ort.htmlconfig2
• And thats not even all of them

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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

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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
• Ive started a series of blog entries on it
• http//carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/fusionde
  bug

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Gotchas Using FD

• Breakpoints remain alive for any user (not just
  debugging developer) if debug session active
• If any user runs the requestthey will see page
  hang
• Only developer with FD open sees its 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
  wont fire
• May not fire if on CFSCRIPT or CFRETURN and in
  some other instances
• See http//www.fusion-reactor.com/fusiondebug/sup
  port.htmlbreakpoints4
• Can try to set variable for query column but
  wont take
• When setting variable that can be evaled as
  expression (555-0002), will do math
• so surround it in quotes to coerce as string

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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 (Intergrals CF monitor
  tool), should disable crash protection feature
• If you CFEclipse and dont see line pointer
  highlighted, can configure that
• See http//www.fusion-reactor.com/fusiondebug/supp
  ort.htmlcfeclipse2
• Firewalls or port restrictions can get in the way
  sometimes

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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 thats 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)

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Pricing, Discounts, Trials

• List price US 299
• Available 10 Discount Code CFCOMMUNITY
• Priced per seat, available volume discounts
• Available free trial (20 days)
• Ive arranged 2 licenses to give away tonight

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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 Ive 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_at_fusion-reactor.com
• Whats with the name/spelling Intergral? ?
• Formed from Internet and Integration

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Conclusion

• Great solution, finally, for CFML debugging
• Sure, it costs money, but will pay for itself if
  youll benefit from debugging
• Some debugging naysayers. To each his own
• Intergral support has been great
• Available free support at support_at_fusion-reactor.c
  om
• Very interested in supporting community

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Questions on presentation

• Charlie Arehart
• charlie_at_carehart.org
• 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