To debug a portlet project on a local server, you will use a portal test environment server. It is recommended that you debug portlets on a local server rather than a remote server.
The process of debugging a portlet application is exactly the same as for a Web application. You can control and trace the execution of the portlet. You can set the break points in the Java™ source code and the JSP files.
During the debugging phase, most changes to portlets are automatically republished to the test environment. However, some changes, such as changing the portlet name, supported markups or supported modes, may require you to restart the server to confirm the resource changes for your portlet projects.
When you debug a portlet on the local test environment server, the default theme and skin are used. To use a customized theme or skin, refer to Testing and debugging portals
When portlets are published to a test environment server, a Test Environment page is created. Each portlet is placed on its own page under the Test Environment page. Each portlet page has the same name as the associated portlet project.
To debug a portlet application in the test environment: