MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION 5 - CFML User Manual download pdf

The ColdFusion 8 Debugger Explained:

Interactive Step Debugging for ColdFusion 8

by Charlie Arehart

any CFML developers have felt that the one thing missing from their arsenal of tools

was an interactive step debugger. Until now, step debugging in ColdFusion required

FusionDebug, a third-party tool I introduced to readers in Volume 1 Issue 2 of this journal.

ColdFusion 8 now includes its own CFML step debugger, and in this article, I’ll introduce

readers to the concept of step debugging and to the tool in ColdFusion 8, without presuming

you’ve read the earlier article or used FusionDebug. In the sidebar below, I’ll explain why

developers, even those who dismiss debuggers, should give them serious consideration. I

think perhaps you’ll see some aspects of the tool that exceed your expectations.

What is Interactive Step Debugging?

Interactive or step debugging has got nothing to do with the debugging output at the

bottom of your CFML page. Have you ever wished you could watch as your program

executes from line to line? That’s exactly what a step debugger does for you. You can set

breakpoints on any line of CFML code, and, in the case of the CF8 debugger, set it to stop on

a line of code in error. You can step into your include les, custom tags, functions and CFC

methods, watch the values of expressions and variables, and do much more.

Such tools are common in languages like Java, .NET, Javascript, Flex and Flash. CFML

developers who have not used those languages may not even have noticed that we’ve

lacked a debugger. ColdFusion 4 and 5 did have interactive debugging, by way of ColdFusion

Studio, now HomeSite+, but Macromedia/Adobe chose not to carry that feature forward

into ColdFusion MX. In 2006, Intergral GmbH introduced FusionDebug, a tool that brought

step debugging to ColdFusion MX. Now Adobe has included a debugger in ColdFusion 8

(which works in all editions of the product).

While FusionDebug is a commercial product and the ColdFusion 8 debugger (“the CF8

debugger” for the remainder of this article) is free, note that FusionDebug also works with

ColdFusion 6 and 7. The two tools are very similar, though, and I’ll discuss the dierences at

the end of the article.

Both CFML debuggers allow you to trigger the debugging session not only in the

development environment, but also in any browser, or indeed from any kind of client that

can make requests to CFML pages — CFM or CFC les — on your server. Naturally, this

powerful feature may cause some concerns about security, which we’ll address later.

About the ColdFusion 8 Debugger

Like FusionDebug, the ColdFusion 8 debugger is an Eclipse plug-in, leveraging the

underlying debugging capabilities built into Eclipse. FlexBuilder is an Eclipse plug-in as well,

and also provides debugging which leverages the underlying Eclipse debugging features.

If you don’t use Eclipse currently, you may worry about having to switch editors. First, note

that you don’t need to give up your favorite CFML editor, DWMX, CF Studio, HomeSite+,

CFEclipse, or whatever. Further, you need to know only minimal Eclipse functionality—

87 Tools The Fusion Authority Quarterly Update

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Summary of Contents

Page 1

The ColdFusion 8 Debugger Explained:Interactive Step Debugging for ColdFusion 8by Charlie ArehartMany CFML developers have felt that the one thing mi

Page 2 - Why Use a Step Debugger?

Third, if you want to use the Sandbox security feature in the Multiserver or J2EE conguration, you’ll need to enable a Java security manager (ja

Page 3

A veteran ColdFusion developer since 1997, Charlie Arehart is a longtime contributor to the community and a recognized Adobe Communi

Page 4

Why Use a Step Debugger?What advantages does a debugger oer over CFOUTPUT and CFDUMP, and other such techniques? Here are just a few ways i

Page 5

Getting StartedYou will need both:the Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment), which is a free download from eclipse.orgthe ColdFusion 8 Ec

Page 6 - Understanding the Stack Trace

easy, and you’ll nd instructions on the installation in the ColdFusion 8 manual, Installing and Using ColdFusion, in the chapter “Installing Integrat

Page 7 - Stepping into Other Files

You may wonder what happens when a user requests a page that is being debugged. He’ll generally see the page request waiting in the browser,

Page 8 - Conguration and Security

than putting in CFDUMPs or CFOUTPUTs, and having to remember to remove them? As I discuss in the sidebar, there are also situations where you simply c

Page 9

le page request. For instance, consider the following code, which is an application built in Fusebox 5: Let’s see how the debug view (stack trace) ap

Page 10 - Conclusion

the path of the products variable in the Variables view, and I can see that it is indeed a CFC. If I expand it, I can see various metadata, such as th

Page 11 - Special Edition

If “Separate user name and password authentication” is selected (an option available only on the Enterprise and Developer editions), then both a use

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