#Debugging

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.

I'm sure you have met this situation:

• There is a bug in a System that you can't reproduce yourself locally
• You need to run a few lines in the affected instance
• You get full access to System Management Portal
• But there is just no terminal, nor console, nor access with Studio, Atelier or VSCode
• How to run your few lines for testing ???

In general Global Streams are data objects embedded in Classes / Tables.
Using and viewing them with SQL is normally a part of the access to the containing tables.

SO WHAT?

During debugging or searching for strange or unexpected behavior there could be the need to
get closer to the stored stream. No big problem with direct access to Globals with SMP or Terminal.
But with SQL you are lost.
So my tool provides dynamic access to Global Streams wherever you may need this
Special thanks to @Oliver Wilms for the inspiration for this tool.

Some technical background information

There is not just one class in this package: rcc.gstream.cls but also rcc.gstreamT.cls

While rcc.gstream works with direct access to the stream globals, the *T version uses
a Process Private Global (PPG) as Temporary storage.
using SELECT * FROM RCC.gstreamT WHERE RCC.useT('^jpgS')=1 and similar.

There is a popular package "WebTerminal". It is excellent in most situations.
Except:

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! 

The Command extension enables the execution of Multi-Line Commands from Terminal prompt.

Terminal Multi-Line Input with Edit, Insert, Delete, Print extension for IRIS and Caché
IRIS and Caché have just single command lines in terminal available
This Multi-Line Commands Editor also will execute the Multi-line Commands.
In addition, it is independent of access to %SYS and can be installed in any namespace

Special thanks to @Jeffrey Drumm who inspired me to this and supported me as beta-tester.

In the WRC, we frequently see customers contact us because their Web Gateway is unable to serve web pages. This article will explain a frequent reason why these errors can occur, and explain some tools which can be used to debug the problem. This explanation is focused on the Web Gateway serving InterSystems IRIS instances, but the same explanation should apply to the CSP Gateway serving Caché instances as well.

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.

The %Net.SSH.Session class lets you connect to servers using SSH. It's most commonly used with SFTP, especially in the FTP inbound and outbound adaptors.

In this article, I'm going to give a quick example of how to connect to an SSH server using the class, describe your options for authenticating, and how to debug when things go wrong.

Here's an example of making the connection:

Every developer has made the mistake of accidentally leaving temporary debug code in place when they meant to remove it after debugging is complete. The great thing about writing in ObjectScript is that there is a way to make temporary code be truly temporary and automatically self-destruct! This can also be done in such a way that the code has no change of making it into your source control stream, which can be helpful as well.

Not everyone knows that InterSystems Caché has a built-in tool for code profiling called Caché Monitor.

Its main purpose (obviously) is the collection of statistics for programs running in Caché. It can provide statistics by program, as well as detailed Line-by-Line statistics for each program.

Using Caché Monitor

Let’s take a look at a potential use case for Caché Monitor and its key features. So, in order to start the profiler, you need to go to the terminal and switch to the namespace that you want to monitor, then launch the %SYS.MONLBL system routine: