IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Create processes in IBM Process Designer > Modeling processes > Building services > Building a Decision service > Testing a Decision service

Debugging a Decision service

Debug a rule component in a Decision service using the Inspector perspective and the debugging feature in Process Designer. Use these testing functions to can examine how the Decision service operates in each step of the process execution, which provides a more detailed inspection than simply stepping through the process.

There are several types of Decision service problems that you can troubleshoot using the Debug Service and the Inspector.

For example:

• Results from running the Decision service are not what you expected.

• Running the Decision service results in an exception and you need to identify the process step that generates errors.

To enable the Debug Service to step through the Decision service execution, set a breakpoint on each activity within the Decision service before running the debug function.

Procedure

1. Verify that you are working in the Decision service that you want to test and debug.

2. Click the Debug

   icon.

3. The IBM BPM Debug Service opens in a new browser window, as shown in the following diagram:

   

4. Click Step in the Debug window to run the Decision service one step at a time, or click Run to run the complete Decision service.

5. When Process Designer prompts you to change to the Inspector perspective, click Yes.

   The prompt to switch to the Inspector perspective might be covered up by the Debug window.

6. The Inspector opens the currently running service in the Services in Debug tab and shows progress through the service, using a hierarchical tree in the Execution State panel to show the process step that is running.

   

7. When you run a Decision service and an exception occurs, the Inspector clearly identifies the error in the Execution State panel. The Inspector also tells you where the error happened, and links directly to the source of the problem. For more information about using the Inspector to debug errors, see the related topic "Resolving errors."

8. The Debug service browser window captures error and exception messages. The first few lines of the exception are displayed at the top of the browser window. To see the complete message, click Details. To help you locate the rule that produced the error, some exception messages refer to specific rules by their order number, such as Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, prefixed by the name of the Decision service step:

   An error occurred in QuoteLookupRule2 service, at step BalRule1. 
      Detail message: Object stockQ not found at run time during execution. 
      Verify that the object has been initialized.

Testing a Decision service

Related tasks:
Scenario: Creating a Decision service in a Personalized Notification process
Resolving errors