Revision as of 04:21, 11 April 2024

Debugging is one of the most important skills for a developer. Software development is all about writing code, making mistakes, and fixing them.

Strong debugging skills minimize the development cycle by allowing developers to pinpoint bugs quicker, make fixes that actually address the problems encountered, and verify the modifications are correct. This is particularly important as the code gets more complex.

Lianja App Builder is quite unique in that as you develop an App you are working directly on live data running live dynamically compiled code. This development paradigm encourages agile development and to assist you further, Lianja App Builder provides some very powerful graphical debugging tools for you to use.

Troubleshooter

The Troubleshooter provides a tabbed interface bringing together debugging, tracing and performance metrics to assist you in testing and tuning your Apps.

Desktop Tab

The Desktop Tab contains the following:

Server Tab

The Server Tab contains the following:

Additional Lianja/VFP Debugging Techniques

DEBUGOUT

With set debugout on, the debugout command can be used to log text messages to the debug.txt file in the Lianja debug sub-directory and displayed in the Troubleshooter Debugout Tab. The debugout command is ignored if set debugout is off.

// debugdoc.prg
set debugout on
debugout "about to open database"
open database southwind
debugout "about to open table"
use example
replace all available with limit - balance
debugout "after replace"
close databases
debugout "after close data"
set debugout off
// Following line will not be logged:
debugout "no need to log this"
// end

debug.txt contents:

Debugout called from DEBUGDOC at line 3: about to open database
Debugout called from DEBUGDOC at line 5: about to open table
Debugout called from DEBUGDOC at line 8: after replace
Debugout called from DEBUGDOC at line 10: after close data

SET DEBUG ON

With SET DEBUG ON, debugging and error information is logged to the debug text file in the lianja debug sub-directory. By default, SET DEBUG is OFF. The debugging information will contain a valuable insight into the internal code so when trying to track down a hard to locate bug SET DEBUG ON may be your life saver.

SET DEBUGTRACE ON

With SET DEBUGTRACE ON, a trace of command execution is included in the debug text file output when SET DEBUG is ON. By default, SET DEBUGTRACE is OFF.

SET DEBUGCOMPILE ON

With SET DEBUGCOMPILE ON, the compiler includes debugging information in the compiled code file. This information is then output to the debug text file in the lianja debug sub-directory when the program is run with SET DEBUG ON. By default, SET DEBUGCOMPILE is OFF.

SET ERRORLOGGING ON

With SET ERRORLOGGING ON, errors are logged to the debug text file in the lianja debug sub-directory. By default, SET ERRORLOGGING is ON.

Lianja.writeOutput()

This is a convenience method on the Lianja system object that will write to the output log at development time. When used in Web/Mobile Apps it will write to the console. It is the equivalent to console.log() but cross platform and cross language.

Lianja.writeError()

This is a convenience method on the Lianja system object that will write to the error log at development time. When used in Web/Mobile Apps it will write to the console. It is the equivalent to console.error() but cross platform and cross language.

Additional JavaScript Debugging Techniques

Lianja.writeOutput()

This is a convenience method on the Lianja system object that will write to the output log at development time. When used in Web/Mobile Apps it will write to the console. It is the equivalent to console.log() but cross platform and cross language.

Lianja.writeError()

This is a convenience method on the Lianja system object that will write to the error log at development time. When used in Web/Mobile Apps it will write to the console. It is the equivalent to console.error() but cross platform and cross language.

Error Handling

Lianja/VFP Exception Handling

TRY...CATCH...FINALLY is a command structure to handle errors and exceptions within a block of code. The <tryCommands> which follow the TRY statement are executed. If no error occurs in the <tryCommands> program execution continues from the FINALLY statement. If an error occurs, program execution jumps immediately to the CATCH statement. RETURN statements should not be issued within a TRY... ENDTRY block.

try
    use example exclusive
catch
    messageBox("Unable to open example table")
endtry
 
//Another example
try
    use example exclusive
catch to oExc
    if oExc.message = "ALIAS name already in use"
        select example
        exit
    else
        messageBox("Unable to open example table")
    endif
endtry
 
//Another example
try
    ? [Outer Try]
    try 
        use example exclusive
    catch to oExc 
        oExc.UserValue = "Nested CATCH message: Unable to handle"
        ?[: Nested Catch]  
        ?[  Inner Exception Object: ]
        ?[  Error: ] + str(oExc.ErrorNo) 
        ?[  LineNo: ] + str(oExc.LineNo) 
        ?[  Message: ] + oExc.Message 
        ?[  Procedure: ] + oExc.Procedure 
        ?[  StackLevel: ] + str(oExc.StackLevel) 
        ?[  LineContents: ] + oExc.LineContents
        ?[  UserValue: ] + oExc.UserValue 
        throw oExc 
    finally
        ?[: Nested FINALLY executed ] 
    endtry   
catch to oExc1
    ?[: Outer CATCH ]
    ?[  Outer Exception Object: ] 
    ?[  Error: ] + str(oExc1.ErrorNo)
    ?[  LineNo: ] + str(oExc1.LineNo) 
    ?[  Message: ] + oExc1.Message 
    ?[  Procedure: ] + oExc1.Procedure 
    ?[  StackLevel: ] + str(oExc1.StackLevel) 
    ?[  LineContents: ] + oExc1.LineContents 
    ?[  ->UserValue becomes inner exception THROWn from nested TRY/CATCH ]
    if oExc1.UserValue.Message = "ALIAS name already in use"
        select example
    endif    
finally
?[: FINALLY executed ] 
endtry

JavaScript Exception Handling

The try...catch statement marks a block of statements to try, and specifies a response, should an exception be thrown.

try {
   throw 'myException'; // generates an exception
}
catch (e) {
   // statements to handle any exceptions
   logMyErrors(e); // pass exception object to error handler
}