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How to debug SmartForm

  • 10 February 2016
  • 8 replies
  • 39 views

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Dear K2 friends,

I am wondering if it is possible to debug the K2 Smartform for its functionality , for example, like breakpoint in Visual Studio and know the controls input and output values and variables.

Thank you for your continuous support.

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Best answer by Albarghouthy 10 February 2016, 17:28

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8 replies

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi IPO,

 

Have a look at this:

 

https://help.k2.com/onlinehelp/k2smartforms/userguide/1.0.5/webframe.html#manually_debugging_forms.html

Badge +9

Thank You Mustafa,

 

Great Information which I did not notice. This makes life much easier.

Badge +7

IPO,


 


If you want to know the controls input and output values and variables, you can add datalabels in your views and forms, and transfer data from the controls to the datalabels. I found this useful to figure out what is happening in the background. 


I used the trace statement to figure out what the bool value was looking for. I wrote about it here


 


Trace statements are very basic, and not breakpoints, but they can be very useful depending on the situation. 


 


Chad

Badge +9

Thank You Chadg,

Data-label control and transfering the values into data-label is handy to know its values.

Badge +4

Hi IPO,


 


One more way to find which Action is throwing an error and stopping a Form from going forward is to put notifications with different messages after each Rule/Set of Rules so you know after which notification a 'bad' Action is located. This concept of having a maintenance Action was also logged as a feature request. Hope to see it in the future releases of K2 blackpearl.


 


HTH,


Eugene

Badge +3

Is it that difficult to include the rule name, location, or whatever possible rule identifcation in the error section?

 

I mean, I have the unfortunate oportunity of having to support a poorly written K2 application, and, by far, the thing that takes the most time is figuring out where, in sequence of initialize rules spread across the form and it's different views, did the error happen.

 

Seriously, this has just taken the whole day (!) to figure.

 

Either provide where (somehow) in the rules did the error happen (sounds like basic info about an error), or a way to properly search stuff in the rules, and in all of them.

 

The frustration of having spend 6 hours looking for the source rule of a 'Object reference not set..' during form load, only to fix it and find it also happens on a button click (From later experience I'm expecting another 6 hours looking for the offending smart form rule).

 

Also as others pointed out, SmartForms rule break points would be fantastic.

 

(I have literally lost weeks, cumulatively, searching for offending rules)

Yes K2 is horrible software for developer.

Userlevel 3
Badge +5
I know this an old post, but I have written a Chrome extension that greatly improves SmartForm debugging.

SmartForm Assistant
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smartform-assistant/gofkomdjofigdlgfedgedbibbachbacb

It's not Visual Studio kind of debugging but it makes tracing confusing events MUCH easier. Allows you to look at the data in SmartObjects, edit data labels at run time and much more.

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