Using Breakpoints in the Flow Debugger

Last Updated: 12/04/2015 Introduced in Verision: 2.0

This feature has been deprecated in Decisions 2.6.5 and Decisions 3.0.

The Flow Debugger is the platform’s environment for testing and debugging flows before putting them into production. When testing, it may be necessary to temporarily halt the flow’s progress so that data can be analyzed mid-flow. In the Debugger, you can also stop, pause and resume your debugging session, as well as adjust data mid-flow.

To insert a breakpoint in a flow, in the Flow Designer, select the step on which the debugger should pause and, in the Properties panel, click the link Create Breakpoint.

Example

Our example flow contains many outcomes and many steps, however two steps are particularly good candidates for a breakpoint: Add New Account 1 and GoTo Step 1. Flow management steps like these direct flow automatically and without pause. It might be helpful to pause the program at these points to see the state of our data and, if necessary, change it manually for testing purposes.
 flow
 

We can create our breakpoints by selecting these steps and, from the bottom of the Properties panel, clicking the Create Breakpoint link. Now, we’re ready to start our debugger.

createBreakpoint

 

Our program begins with a form offering four buttons and outcomes. To test the breakpoint placed on the Add New Account 1 step, click the button Create Account.

formInTheDebugger

 

Once our flow reaches the breakpoint we placed, it halts the debugger at the appropriate step – in this case, Add New Account 1.

diagramDebug

 

If we want to pause our debugger or stop it altogether, we can control our session using the buttons in the upper left corner.

debuggerControlls

 

We can also get a feel for our breakpoints by viewing the Breakpoints tab.

 

This view is useful for highlighting the paths to those breakpoints.

 

anotherPath 

Additional Resources