Diagnostic mode

Diagnostic mode can be used in applications and components to ensure they perform as intended. It is also a way to identify errors.

All applications in the development environment can be debugged by running them in diagnostic mode. Diagnostic mode can be activated either by starting the application from the designer or by opening the diagnostic panel in a running application.

When starting diagnostic mode from the designer, the Windows Forms client is used. Alternatively, if you prefer to use the Web client, hold down the shift key and click on the play button.

The diagnostic panel in a running application is available in both Web and Windows Forms clients by clicking the diagnostic icon in the header to toggle diagnostic mode.

General

By opening the diagnostic panel, users have access to the following information about the application:

• The current state of all variables in the application execution.

• The name and location of the current step in the application.

• The current trace logs of the application execution.

Diagnostic mode also affects the execution of the application so that it will enter a diagnostic view when the following occurs

• The application encounters an error.

• The application ends.

• A breakpoint is reached (if the application was started from the designer and is running in the Windows client).

In this view, a user can access all info in the panel as well as return to the previous step.

Variables

In the Variables tab, the user can view the current state of all variables within the ongoing execution. All variables available in the current execution state are presented in the variables table, which contains the name, value, and type of each variable. Some variables that contain properties or elements can be expanded to show their values, indicated by an expand icon.

The user can find variables of interest using the search field or by pinning variables with the pin button. Pinned variables will display it in a separate table, which will be stored for future application runs.

In Pinned variables and Variables use right mouse button click to:

• Copy: Right-click in the diagnostic panel to copy the name, value, or as FlowScript.

• Pin/Unpin variable: Right-click in the diagnostic panel to pin a variable. All pinned variables are visible in the Pinned Variable section.

Additional functionality includes:

• Expand and collapse: Click the Expand/Collaps all icon to expand and collapse all the sub-sections in Variables.

• Copy all: Click the Copy all icon to obtain in the clipboard the FlowScript code to set up all current variables in a script step (excluding binary variables).

• Search: The search box can be used to search for variable names, values, and types.

• Sort: Click on the column name to sort the variables in ascending, descending, or original order.

Hidden characters

The user can choose to show hidden characters within text variables by pressing the hidden characters switch. This will display spaces as dots, tabs as arrows and other C0 Unicode characters as their text abbreviations.

Trace Logs

In the Trace Logs tab, the user can select the type of traces that will gathered during the application run.

• Tracing Steps will generate a log when entering or exiting steps and data nodes. These entries will have the type Step in the log table.

• Tracing User Logs will generate logs of messages passed in the Trace Module when used in a client-side script. These entries will have the type User in the log table.

• Tracing HTTP calls will generate a log for each HTTP request and response that is sent and received by the HTTP module when used in a client-side script. These entries will have the type HTTP in the log table.

By default, all traces are turned off if the application is not started from the designer.

Each log will contain information about the step it occurs in, a brief description, and a timestamp in the local time zone. Clicking on a log will expand it to present more detailed information.

FlowScript Evalutor

In diagnostic mode the user can open up the FlowScript Evalutor.

In this Evaluator the user can write and evaluate FlowScript expressions that have access to all current variables in the execution as well as all the standard functions and modules in FlowScript.

The result of the evaluated expression will be shown as text in the panel below the expression input. If the expression results in an error, the error will be shown.

When writing a FlowScript expression in the expression panel the user can use the shortcut "alt + e" to evaluate the expression without having to press the evaluation button.