Configuring Tracer settings

Select which events, event types, rulesets, and pages to trace, break conditions, and options for the amount of output that you want the Tracer to generate.

  1. On the developer toolbar, click Tracer, or click Actions > Trace on an activity, data transform, or service rule form.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Select the events that you want to include in the Tracer output. These options are useful for debugging activities.
  4. Select the conditions under which you want the Tracer to pause processing.
    • Exception – Stops the Tracer on the first Java exception.
    • Fail Status – Pauses processing when a step ends with a Fail status in the pxMethodStatus property value.
    • Warn Status – Pauses processing when a step ends with a Warn status in the pxMethodStatus property value.
  5. In the GENERAL OPTIONS section, select the options that determine the quantity of output that will be produced for specific conditions.
    • Expand Java Pages – If processing has properties of mode Java Pages, includes the Java class details from those properties in the Tracer output. This option can significantly slow processing.
    • Abbreviate Events – Tracer operation can affect the performance of your requestor session. This option reduces the performance impact by limiting the amount of clipboard detail that is retained for each row in the Tracer window.
    • Local variables – Captures the status of local variables for Begin and End events of activities and their steps. An output row is created each time the value of a local variable in an activity is set.
    Note: Selecting this option disables Pages To Trace.

    For local variables with a value of Java null , the Tracer output displays the string null - No Value for the value of the local variable.

  6. Select the event types whose progress you want to trace. Examples of rules that produce events are flows, declarative rules, and decision tree rules. You can also trace events related to services and database operations. For declarative rules, the Tracer output shows the operation of the declarative network, that is, the forward and backward chaining computations that occur automatically in the declarative network.
  7. Add additional events to the tracer output.
    1. In the EVENT TYPES TO TRACE section, in the Event Type field, enter the event type, for example, CaseType.
    2. Click Add.
    3. Select the option that you just added.
  8. Add custom events to the tracer output.
    1. Modify the activity or executable rule that you want to debug to call the standard function sendDebugMessagetoTracer(strMessage, strRuleSet) at appropriate places. This function is in the PegaRULES Utilities library. Because this function returns void, it cannot be used in most methods. To include the function in a Java step, enter the call in the following format: 
      pega_rules_utilities.sendDebugMessagetoTracer(message, RuleSet)
    2. In the EVENT TYPES TO TRACE section, in the Event Type field, enter Debug.
    3. Click Add.
    4. Select the Debug option that you just added.
    5. Select the ruleset that is referenced by the function call that you added in step 8a.
  9. Enable the Tracer to report changes to reference properties.
    1. In the EVENT TYPES TO TRACE section, in the Event Type field, enter Reference Properties.
    2. Click Add.
    3. Select the Reference Properties option that you just added.
  10. Select the rulesets to trace.
  11. Enter additional pages to trace that are not the primary or step pages for a requester. Primary and step pages for a requester are traced by default. This option is not available if you selected Abbreviate Events in the GENERAL OPTIONS section.
    1. In the Page Name field, enter the page name. Page names are case-sensitive.
    2. Click Add.

      While the Tracer session runs, the Tracer watches these pages. If it locates the pages, links to their content display in the Properties on Page window when you open an event from the Tracer output.

      Although there is no limit to the number of pages you can trace, the Tracer runs slower as the number of traced pages increases.

  12. n the Max Trace Events to Display field, enter the number of trace events to display.
  13. Click OK.