Did you know? 3-tier Debugging in Application Designer is very useful

 

I'm a developer and so I work with lines of code, variables and complex data types like Rowsets, Arrays and the like.   I often need to debug and troubleshoot my own code and, also code written by others. 

Application Designer is missing some features that you'd expect from a web application IDE.   I'm not going to try and defend App Designer but I will say that if you want a feature rich ERP system with a good development and configuration tool then PeopleSoft ticks a lot of boxes.  But, on the other hand, if you need a comprehensive  development tool from which you build any application then you'd probably chose some other IDE.  Anyway.... things like code folding, code completion, refactoring features, etc.  are somewhat missing in Application Designer but I'm happy to live without those things because I have access to real-time PeopleCode debugging !  

Why use a debugger?

• Inspect variable type and values at runtime
• Understand the structure and flow of code especially complex component, nested methods or function calls
• Accelerate the development process

Did you know this even existed?   It's pretty cool and you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

Quick setup guide below or watch the video if you want to learn more. 

How to setup

My quick notes are just a summary.  The PeopleSoft Online documentation will provide more details on setup and usage.  

1. Enable WSL and PC Debugger in the Application Server domain.  You need these 

• WSL is needed because Application Designer is going to connect to the Application Server domain (3-tier) rather than directly to the database (2-tier).
• Debugging process  PSDBGSRV is required so that the Application Server Domain can link a PIA session with your 3-tier 

2. Configure Application Designer to make a 3-tier connection by adding a new Profile.