Debugging Javascript - General Guidance
I’m looking for General Guidance, not a solution to a specific problem!
I have a lot of experience programming in server-side languages like C++, C#, T-SQL, PL/SQL, and others… but am very much a n...
Forum Discussion
For most transformations, the SnapLogic expression language can be used. We support dynamic validations, which enables rapid prototyping and development.
For more complex requirements, a custom Snap can be developed in Java. Full IDE support is possible through debugger support. A custom snap has performance advantages over a Script snap when the document count is large, but the development of the custom snap does require more effort.
For the Script snap, using log statement to debug the script is one approach. Another approach is to develop the script outside of SnapLogic, using the command-line version of the language to test the script and then upload the script into SnapLogic. This works well for Jython, I believe the same approach works for JavaScript.
Thanks, AkiDave. I think of the three options you present, only the third pair are viable: logging and/or externally debugging. If I’m troubleshooting someone else’s implementation of XTEA (or something else not built into Snaplogic), for example, I’m not going to be able to break that into expressions in a mapping snap. And I don’t have the budget to sidetrack an entire developer for a while and have them learn to implement a custom debugging snap — we would have done that long ago if we had known that was going to be something we needed.
So I’m hoping that another pipeline developer (customer or SnapLogic) who’s done this can chip in and advise me how to set up an external debugging environment. (This would speed up things for me wonderfully.) I’ve been trying to set up NCDbg and Nashorn atop the same Java 11 distro that we use in the Snaplex, but the documentation is sorely lacking and assumes a lot of infrastructure knowledge that I just don’t have. Instructions like “just run the engine like you normally do and pass the same configuration parameters you used there also over here but with so-and-so modified.” Okay, if I’ve never run the JVM stand alone and also never a JS engine on top of that, and also the debugger components, there is no “usually,” LOL.
