How to Debug WebReports in OpenText Content Server

Question

Hello everyone,

I’m working with OpenText WebReports and I’m looking for ways to debug WebReports tags, including inner (nested) sub-WebReports, during development and troubleshooting.

Specifically, I’d like to know:

* How to trace or inspect execution of WebReports tags and nested sub-WebReports
* How to identify which tag or sub-WebReport is failing
* How to view detailed error messages instead of generic failures
* Whether there are logs, debug settings, or recommended techniques for this
* Best practices for troubleshooting complex WebReports with multiple levels of nesting

Any guidance, tips, or documentation links would be greatly appreciated.

GregPetti · Answer

One more useful nugget of information. Some sub-tag have their error responses set to "blank", which we refer to as soft errors as by default, they don't return anything; however, they usually have long errors specified that can be accessed using the ONERROR: sub-tag. If you add ONERROR:LONG to your tag (anywhere in the list of sub-tags), this will enable the longer message (if one has been defined).

GregPetti · Answer

There are a variety of ways to do this. If you have Eclipse setup, you can debug WebReports in some detail; however, some knowledge of the WebReports architecture is necessary or you would not  easily know where or how to set breakpoints and how to trace them etc.  We teach a course on this, combined with training on building and debugging sub-tags.  We tend to do it on a per-customer basis, but if we had at least 4-5 participants lined up we would be willing to put a course on for a few different participants.

If you're not using eclipse (builder) we have a few sub-tags that can make it easier to debug. These are available free on request. Particularly we have a sub-tag called RB_LOG which allows you to log information at any point in a WebReport which allows you to trace which logic branches are getting hit, and the state of any data during the processing of the WebReport. The output from this can be in the output, or the thread log, or into a separate log file stored in a specific folder. You have control over the folder and the file name. and this avoids having to find thread logs and wade through them.   Use of this sub-tag is included in the training course, but we would be happy to provide some pointers if you use this sub-tag. Another related sub-tag is RB_TIMER which is more about checking timing from point to point in execution.

This is all part of an overall IDE we provide, (which includes a viewer for the RB_LOG files) but that one sub-tag can provide you with significant debugging capability. If you are using eclipse (without training) we also have a free/simple sub-tag called RB_BREAK that you can add to your WebReport  as part of an existing tag, or in an empty string tag. This allow you to start tracing from a known point.

Greg

info@ravenblackts.com