How to Debug a Business Process

This tutorial demonstrates how to debug a business process that has been designed in TIBCO Business Studio and deployed to a server.

This tutorial describes the steps for debugging a simple business process. You can also debug a pageflow process. This follows a very similar procedure to that described here, but you need to enter different values at some points - see for example Configuring the Tester, step 3.

Note: For an independent pageflow or business service, if it contains a user task, it cannot be stepped through using the TIBCO Business Studio debugging tools alone. It requires a web service call (via pageflow/business service APIs) to move over these tasks.

You should use the Process launcher and Emulation launcher in a single node setup. The Process Launcher and Emulation launcher are not supported in the multi-node HA environment. These tools are targeted for the process debugging purposes and not meant for the production environment. They rely on monitoring the process creation notifications from the debugger and will not work when the process instances can be created on anyone of the multiple nodes.

Although it uses a very simple process, this tutorial demonstrates some of the fundamental points of the analysis phase for any business process:

  • Import the project.
  • Deploy the process to BPM.
  • Add breakpoints to check the process flow. To prepare a process for debugging, you need to set breakpoints in a process so the tester suspends execution and allows you to debug. Otherwise, the program runs to completion without letting you do any debugging.
  • Add testpoints to check the data flow. To check the flow of data in a process, you need to add testpoints and/or assertions in the process and pass values through these variables.
  • Configure and launch the tester, which applies the breakpoints defined to the already deployed process.

After you complete this tutorial, you should be familiar with:

  • how to add breakpoints to an activity
  • how to add testpoints and test data to an activity
  • how to configure and launch a process in the debug perspective
  • how to launch a tester
  • how to execute the process in the tester and check the output (with and without emulation data).

Before you Begin

Before you start this tutorial, you should have completed:

  • TIBCO Business Studio Tutorials > Create, Deploy, and Run Your First BPM Application > How to Design a Simple WelcomeUsers Business Process
  • TIBCO Business Studio Tutorials > Create, Deploy, and Run Your First BPM Application > How to Implement and Deploy the WelcomeUsers Application
  1. Understanding the Process
    After you design a process in TIBCO Business Studio, you can debug the process at runtime.
  2. Preparing TIBCO Business Studio for Debugging
    You must set Preferences in TIBCO Business Studio for debugging.
  3. Preparing the Process for Debugging
    To prepare a process for debugging, you need to set breakpoints in a process so the tester suspends execution and allows you to debug—otherwise, the program runs to completion without letting you do any debugging.
  4. Adding Breakpoints
    A breakpoint suspends the execution of the process instance when the execution reaches the location where the breakpoint is added. You can add the breakpoints to activities such as events, tasks, gateways, and sub-processes. However, you can add only one breakpoint type per activity.
  5. Adding and Editing Emulation Files
    By adding testpoints and/or assertions, you can prepare to emulate a process and add test data to certain activities to check the data flow at various points in a process.
  6. Configuring the Tester
    Before running the tester, it must be configured.
  7. Launching the Tester
    The tester allows you to connect to the remote engine and debug the existing processes running on that engine. Once the tester is launched, you are placed into the Debug view.
  8. Running a Process
    You can start a process via the Process Launcher view.
  9. Debugging the Process with Test Data
    To interact in Debug view, you can use the following toolbar. Which icons in the toolbar are enabled at any time depends on the states of the debug models and the debug event notifications from the engine.
  10. Performing Batch Testing
    If you want to run multiple processes without debugging, you can perform batch testing. The Emulation Launcher view is the process batch testing UI.