Running and Debugging a Composite

TIBCO Business Studio provides an environment for executing composites in a local debug node. The debug node is a TIBCO Host instance and node combined into a single process.

You can execute composites in run mode or in debug mode. In run mode, the composite executes, but you cannot suspend the execution or examine the project. In debug mode, you can suspend and resume execution, inspect and modify variables, and evaluate expressions. Running or debugging in a local node is also referred to as rapid application development (RAD) because you do not have to package and deploy the composite in order to test it.

To run or debug a composite, you create a run or debug configuration in which you specify: one or more composites, distributed application archives containing libraries, and resource and debug node properties. When you run the configuration, TIBCO Business Studio:

  • Creates and starts the node and installs resources required by the composite
  • Packages the composite into a distributed application archive and uploads it to the node
  • Creates, deploys, and starts the application

If you change a composite and rerun the configuration, the entire node is reset and all application fragments are redeployed.

In TIBCO Business Studio, when a project is launched in debug and run mode, the console message indicates the port number configured for the HTTP connector. For example:

*** HTTP connector listening on port '5002' ***

Use URL: http://localhost:5002/sample/ for SOAP or Web access.

Limitations

The following features that are available when you run a composite on a remote node are not supported when running composites on a local debug node:
  • Wiring between components running on different nodes.
  • Successive deployments on the same node. As a consequence, applications that behave differently depending on component availability cannot be tested.
  • A debug node cannot start a JMS server. If the composite has JMS resource templates that require a connection to a JMS server you must manually start the server before running the composite.
  • Policy sets and WS-Addressing, transactions, and security features that rely on policies.
  • Wiring using a Service Virtualization binding between different composites deployed on the same node. Use a SOAP binding instead.
  • One node is supported per configuration. However, you can run different configurations on different nodes as long as ports and other system resources don't conflict.