Debugging JBoss AOP Apps Tutorial - Part1

Now and then I run into users complaining they don't know how to debug JBoss AOP applications. Targetting those users, I decided to write this tutorial, that will explain you the basics on debugging JBoss AOP application to have you started right away. As we will see, it is extremely easy to debug a JBoss AOP application using an IDE as Eclipse. The tricky part is how to set up your environment and to get familiar with the JBoss AOP classes that will trigger your advices.


Debugging JBoss AOP Apps Tutorial - Part 1

In this tutorial we are going to show you how you can debug an application that uses JBoss AOP using Eclipse.

For this, you need to have your project set up in Eclipse without compilation errors.

Now, follow in these steps:

1. Open the debug drop-down menu and click on Debug... as shown in the image below:
   
   
2. On the Debug window, click the New launch configuration button:




3. Configure your test as you would if your application didn't use JBoss AOP.
   
4. On the Arguments tab, add the javaagent argument and define the system property “jboss.aop.path” as in the example:
   
-javaagent:/home/fla/Development/workspace/jboss-aop/aop/output/lib/jboss-aop-jdk50.jar
-Djboss.aop.path=/home/fla/Development/workspace/MyApp/src/resources/jboss-aop.xml

   
   
   Notice you have to fill those values with the path of the jboss-aop-jdk50.jar and the jboss-aop.xml in your system.
   

Now you are ready to go. Just add the breakpoints to the points you want to debug and start the debugging.

In the next part of this tutorial, we are going to explain the JBoss AOP classes you will run into when debugging and what you need to know about them in order to debug your application and your aspects successfully. Stay tuned!