Testing and debugging the component
About testing and debugging a Jaguar component
Before you can test and debug a Jaguar component that you’ve
developed in PowerBuilder, you need to create a new project and
build the project. The new project lists the object(s) that will
be included and specifies the name of the output library that will
contain the generated component(s).
Once you’ve built the project, you can test the component
by running a client application that accesses the component and
also use the PowerBuilder debugger to debug the component.
Using the wizards to create projects
You can use the Jaguar Component Start, Object, and Project
wizards to create projects for building Jaguar components. The wizards
allow you to select the component(s) you want to build and specify
settings that control the behavior of the project. After you create
a project, you can use the Project painter to modify your project
settings.
Live editing
To deploy a finished component to Jaguar, you need to open
the project in the Project painter, optionally modify the project
settings, and build the project. This is not
the
case when you simply want to test or debug a component. For testing
purposes, you can use a feature of PowerBuilder called live
editing that allows you to build the project automatically
from the User Object painter. When live editing is enabled, PowerBuilder
builds the project for a Jaguar component each time you save the
corresponding user object. The generator does not deploy PBDs to
Jaguar, but instead tells the Jaguar server how to access the PBLs
that contain the required object definition(s).
How to enable live editing
To enable live editing for a user object, you need to:
- Create a project that includes
the user object for which you want to generate a Jaguar component.
You can use an existing PBL that allows for deployment to
Jaguar, or alternatively, you create a new project and use this
just for testing purposes. - Optionally modify the live editing library list
for the project.
When you’re testing a component with a Jaguar server
that resides on a remote machine, you need to tell Jaguar where
to find the PBLs. To do this, you modify the library list in the
Live Editing Library List field on the Advanced property page of
the project property sheet.
The library list you specify must contain fully qualified
paths that use Universal Naming Convention (UNC) names. UNC names
take the form:1<b>\</b><i>servername</i><b></b><i>sharename</i><b></b><i>path</i><b></b><i>file</i>By default, the live editing library list is based on the
application library list.You do not need to modify the live editing library list if
your Jaguar server is local. - Specify the project that will be used to generate
the component in the User object painter.
You need to enter the project name in the Jaguar Project field,
which is located on the General property page of the user object
property sheet.
The project name you specify must meet these requirements:- It must be a Jaguar component project.
- It must include the user object that you currently
have open in the User Object painter. - The library list for the project must match the
current application library list.
How to generate the component
To generate a Jaguar component from the User Object painter,
select File>Save.
What happens when you generate the component
When you build a project from the User Object painter, the
Jaguar component generator performs these operations:
- Generates CORBA IDL that describes the nonvisual object you
saved. The IDL is in turn used to build stubs and skeletons. The
names of the IDL file, the stubs, and the skeletons are based on
the name of the object.
The component generator stores the new IDL in the Repository subdirectory
of the Jaguar installation directory. - Generates a PROPS file that describes the properties
of the Jaguar component.
The PROPS file is stored in the following subdirectory of
the Jaguar installation directory:1<b>RepositoryComponent</b><i>package-name</i>
When you build a project from the User Object painter, the
component generator builds the component just as it would at deployment
time, except that it does not
generate PBDs
for the component. In addition, it sets the pb.live_edit
property to true and assigns the library list you specified for
live editing to the pb.librarylist property.
If the project build results in errors, PowerBuilder displays
the error messages in its standard compiler error dialog.
If instance pooling is enabled for the user object, the generator
disables pooling for the current build. Pooling is not supported
with live editing because PowerBuilder cannot save the user object
if the PBL that contains the user object is locked by the Jaguar
server.
Remote debugging
For information, see “Troubleshooting a Jaguar
component”.