7.4

While stepping through a process (using Step, not Run):
l Double-click on any task to change its properties. If you change the properties of a task before you step through it,
those new properties will be used when the task is executed. Note that you cannot modify the process itself while in
debug mode (you cannot add, delete or move tasks, change branches and conditions, etc).
l Click on Skip to ignore the next task or branch and go to the next one. The job file is not modified in any way.
l Click on View as Text in the Data group of the Debug tab to view the current job file using a text editor (Notepad by
default).
l Click on View as PDFto view the current job file in Adobe Acrobat if it is present (this will work only for PDFjob files).
l Click on View Metadata to open the data selector and see the current state of the process' Metadata.
l Click on View as Hex to view the current job file in the internal Hex editor.
l Click on the Stop button to stop the debugging process. If you use Run, Step or Skip after stopping the process,
debugging starts over from the top.
l Use the Set Breakpoint button to tag the currently selected task, branch or condition as a breakpoint. When you click
Run in your process, the process will execute every task until it reaches a breakpoint and will stop just before the task
that is set as a breakpoint.
l Use the Ignore button to disable the task, branch or condition that is currently selected. If you disable a branch or con-
dition, all tasks inside that branch or condition are ignored including the output. Note that if you set a task, branch or
condition to be ignored, it will also be ignored at runtime, providing you sent the configuration to the service.
l Look at the Messages Area Pane to see any message generated by the tasks that run (see The Message Area Pane).
l Use the Debug Information pane to see the current value of any variable in your process or globally, or to evaluate cus-
tom expression. See The Debug Information Pane.
Debugging and Emulation changes
One of the most useful case where debuggging is crucial is whenever the job file is converted to another type of emulation, or
if a new data file of a different emulation is used within the process. For example, if a process starts with a Line Printer data file
and the converts it into a PDF, it is not possible to do any data selection on the PDFbecause the Line Printer emulation is active
by default. The debugging features can easily resolve this limitation.
The first method is used if your process has all the required tasks, but data selections after an emulation change are nec-
essary.
l Step through the process until you have reached the point after the emulation or data change.
l Any data selection used in task properties after this point will use the new emulation.
l Continue stepping through each task until the end of the process to debug it.
This method does not allow you to add, remove or move tasks, however. The second method can be used when that is
required.
l Step through the process in debug mode until you reach the emulation or data change.
l Click on View as Text (or View as PDFif your data is PDF at this point) in the Data group of the Debug tab.
l In the viewer that appears, save the file to a location on your hard drive.
l Stop the process, and select the file you saved as your process' data file.
l If you need to continue debugging your process after the emulation change, you can still do it by using Skip on all the
tasks until the emulation change, inclusively. Then use Step or Run to continue debugging.
Lastly, PlanetPress Suite 7.4 and higher also has a new option that can be used in conjunction with the previous to avoid skip-
ping through large processes:
l Step through the process until the emulation or data change, as in the first method.
l Save the data file locally and then select it as your sample data file, as with the second method.
Debugging and Error Handling