Preparing to debug

Before you begin a debug session, create a workbench project and ensure that it includes the program that you want to debug.

If you are debugging a Web object, you must also ensure that the application server is prepared for launching the Web object that you will be debugging and that the application server is started in debug mode. For information about starting the server in debug mode, see the related topic or the WebSphere® Application Server documentation.

Creating a workbench project for debugging with the Application Server Toolkit

Before you begin a debug session, create a workbench project and ensure that it includes the program that you want to debug. This project must be a Java™ project or a project with a Java nature. Although having a project is not mandatory for launching a debug session, when you have one you can set a default class path, source lookup path, and JRE. Note that some of your source might not compile if you do not set up the Java build path to include all of the JARS that you need or if you have only imported part of your program into the project. You can still debug the project and most features of the debugger will work (including breakpoints, stepping, and viewing and modifying variables). However, the inspect and display features in the source view will not work if the source has build errors. With the inspect and display features, you can select an expression in the source view and evaluate it. To set your Java build path, complete these steps:

  1. Right-click the project and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
  2. In the Properties dialog box, choose the Java Build Path node and then select the Libraries tab.
  3. Add the .jar files that are needed to build the Web object that you are debugging by clicking Add External JARs and browsing your file system for the files.
  4. When you are finished adding the JARs, click OK to accept the changes to the project and close the Properties dialog box.

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