[SAP HANA Academy] Live3: Web Services - Debugging

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[Update: April 5th, 2016 -  The Live3 on HCP tutorial series was created using the SAP HANA Cloud Platform free developer trial landscape in January 2015. The HCP landscape has significantly evolved over the past year. Therefore one may encounter many issues while following along with the series using the most recent version of the free developer trail edition of HCP.]

The SAP HANA Academy’s philip.mugglestone continues the Live3 on HCP course by showing how the server-side scripting application can be easily debugged using the SAP HANA Web-based Development Workbench.  Check out Philip’s tutorial video below.

(0:15 – 4:10) How to Debug the XSJS Application

First identify the user account. This is listed near the top right corner of the SAP HANA Web-based Development Workbench. Right click on the user name (in Philip’s case it begins with DEV_) and select inspect element. Then copy the user account name so it can be used later on in the debugging.

Now a definition must be created that enables this user to preform debugging. When logged into the server go to the URL displayed below ending with /sap/hana/xs/debugger. On the Grant Access screen paste in the copied account name into the Username text box. Set an expiration date and time for when the debugging access will cease and then click the grant button. Now this user can debug the session.

Back in the SAP HANA Web-based Development Workbench choose the services.xsjs file and hit the execute button to open it up in a new browser tab. Append cmd=cluster1 to the end of the URL to return an invalid command. Now open the developer tools (control+shift+I in chrome) and navigate to the resources tab. Then expand the Cookies folder and open the session cookie file. Identify the value of the xxSessionId.

Now back in the SAP HANA Web-based Development Workbench click the settings button. Then choose the value of the xxSessionId as the session to debug and click apply. A message will appear that the debugger has been attached to the session. Next set a break point where the command is being processed in the code.

Now make a call in the URL. Philip enteres cmd=cluster2. The screen won’t change from earlier and will still say Invalid Command: cluster1 as it will say waiting for hanaxs.trail.ondemand. This is because the debugger has been opened in the SAP HANA Web-based Development Workbench. You will see that the cluster 2 command has been entered and the debugger has come to the break point that was set. You have the normal debugging options such as step in, step over, step through, etc. If you hit the resume button on the debugger than on the file page it will now say Invalid Command: cluster2.

This is how you can access the debugger to preform real-time debugging when using xs in SAP HANA.

Follow along with the Live3 on HCP course here.

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