#Debugging

When there's a performance issue, whether for all users on the system or a single process, the shortest path to understanding the root cause is usually to understand what the processes in question are spending their time doing. Are they mostly using CPU to dutifully march through their algorithm (for better or worse); or are they mostly reading database blocks from disk; or mostly waiting for something else, like LOCKs, ECP or database block collisions?

With the world (as well as our own technology) moving to the cloud at such a fast pace it is easy (at least for myself) to get caught up in the little details. One thing I, and some clients of ours, had run into a couple of times was the necessity to specify the version of the images one plans to use with the IKO.

Intro

If you ever wondered how to debug some requests that are being made to or from IRIS, well here is a little tutorial on how to do that.

During a complex project, usually you get the specifications and implement the communication between IRIS and other things based on that. But from the paper to the real world there's usually a huge gap and you need to know why you are receiving an error on a parameter, on a header, you are not receiving the data and so on.

In this article I'll cover testing and debugging Caché web applications (mainly REST) with external tools. Second part covers Caché tools.

You wrote server-side code and want to test it from a client or already have a web application and it doesn't work. Here comes debugging. In this article I'll go from the easiest to use tools (browser) to the most comprehensive (packet analyzer), but first let's talk a little about most common errors and how they can be resolved.

Hi Community,

I would like to share with you my experience regarding to debugging via Atelier.

I'm developing a REST API and would like to attach to a process when I call the API via a REST Client tool, for example Postman. The purpose is to inspect values from HEADER and BODY of the HTTP request during the debugging process.

Come on! How am I doing? I am going to demonstrate that by using a class from SAMPLES namespace.

1 - Open Atelier;

2 - Open your REST Service class;

3 - Go to the method related to the URI that you need to debug;

From time to time, we get the previous question in support, something or someone is using more licenses than expected, and we need to find what.

We have two scenarios. The first scenario is when we realize that the licenses are exhausted when the application does not work or when we try to connect through the terminal and get the "lovely"

<LICENSE LIMIT EXCEEDED> message:

InterSystems technologies are renowned for their high performing databases, which support the systems and operations of many organisations. However a key ingredient to this success is the quality and maintainability of their code.

The quality of code can impact everything from speed and ease of fixing bugs and making enhancements, to the overall performance of your organization and your ability to get ahead in the marketplace.

By ensuring your code is maintainable, you can reduce approximately 75% of the systems life cycle costs*. This is why, at George James Software, the solutions we build are always straightforward and written in high quality code - because we know that this solid foundation can positively impact the rest of your organization.

With a maintainable system you're able to reduce your overall maintenance as any issues that occur are significantly faster to identify and fix. This means you're free to allocate that time and budget to enhancements, enabling you to get the most value out of your applications and ultimately better support your organization.

Keep an eye out for our next few posts about what a maintainable system looks like and the tools that can help you keep your code maintainable, in order to help you to reduce those maintenance costs.

The latest release of Serenji focuses on the debug experience. Not only can you now debug on the spot, no matter where you are or what you're doing, but we've also added some smaller features that will make debugging more straightforward. 

• Run and Debug CodeLenses - clickable links above each class method, procedure, subroutine or extrinsic function.
• Intuitive prompting for entrypoints and arguments - when debugging a class method, produce, subroutine or extrinsic function. 
• Shaded read-only background - to clearly differentiate between documents which are editable and those that are read-only. 
• Program output in debug console - output is shown in the debug console. 
• Serenji commands on Server Manager's namespace trees - allowing you to launch Serenji through Server Manager. 

Find out more in our release notes here. 

The most recent release of Serenji features our innovative gj::locate technology. It was a standalone tool we originally created for a Developer Community contest earlier this year, but we've incorporated it into our debugger after some great feedback from developers. 

It works by navigating you directly to the source of your server-side errors in just a couple of clicks - enabling you to quickly fix errors without the need to count tedious lines of code... and let's be real, who has got time for that when you're under pressure to fix this bug? 

It's simple and straightforward to use:

1. Click on the gj::locate panel in the status bar

2. Enter the ObjectScript error message or line reference from a class/.mac routine..

3. gj::locate then does the work for you by taking you straight to the corresponding line in your source code.

Easy peasy... and with time to spare to make yourself a coffee before your deadline! 

The video below shows it in action - let us know if you've already given it a go. Or, if you're interested in trying it out we offer a free 30 day trial license, just drop me a message through the Developer Community or email us at info@georgejames.com.

The latest release of Serenji by George James Software introduces zero configuration debugging, so it's ready to go in just one click - no matter where you are or what you're doing, your on-the-spot debugger is ready to go. 

We have introduced a host of new features to enhance the debugging experience so you can focus on identifying and fixing errors, without losing focus by spending time setting up a launch configuration. 

Check out the new features in our release notes. 

If you've already started using Serenji 3.2.0 let us know how you're getting on! 

Hey everyone!

I recently learnt something new while working with WRC on an issue, and I wanted to share with everyone on the off chance it could help someone else.

Scenario:

Files are being inexplicably written to a folder on your server and, due to the number of files in the folder and general system throughput, it is not possible to work through the files to track down the source.

In the WRC, we often see customers who have encountered a problem viewing their SOAP Catalog pages in a browser. This article will explain why the error is being encountered, as well as suggest a fix. This explanation is focused on the symptoms seen in InterSystems IRIS, but similar behavior can be seen in more recent versions of Caché.

Often we need to debug a Business Operation. Tracing and logging work but sometimes you want to work with a BO as with your local terminal session.

Here's how you can do that on any operating system.

Windows has a great tool for debugging Business Operations - Foreground mode. In that mode Windows launches a local terminal with operation job.

Hi, if you develop production with HealthShare, you may have noticed there is a nice tracing feature available - HS.Util.Trace.Operations. This feature allows visually tracing debug information, in structured way. It complements good old logging macros like $$$LOGINFO, $$$TRACE and alike.

I use this feature a lot. However, it has limited functionality, it works nice with classes that extend XML Adapter, streams or data types, but it doesn't work well with arbitrary objects that do no extend from XML Adapter.