What are the steps to debug a Java web application?

Question

I joined a project that was already developed and its web application deployed to Tomcat Server.

I configured the web application on my local Tomcat server and it works fine. I want to start debugging an application, but I'm not sure where to start and how to debug a Java web application from Eclipse, and so my question is

Q: How to debug a Java web application that runs on a Tomcat server on the local computer in an Eclipse environment {Pointers to useful resources or other steps will be highly appreciated}?

Answer 1

There are at least a few ways to do this:

• A quick search showed a tutorial for using remote debugging in eclipse with tomcat to connect eclipse to a java process running tomcat.
• If you create your project as a dynamic web project using eclipses Web Tool Platform , you can easily deploy and debug tomcat from eclipse .

Answer 2

I had to do this several times. Often you cannot create a dynamic web project for debugging a web application in tomcat. This method is quite simple, but requires some configuration in tomcat and then using Elcipse (or netbeans) to attach to tomcat when it starts.

http://wiki.apache.org/tomcat/FAQ/Developing , in particular

How to configure Tomcat to support remote debugging? and How to remotely debug Tomcat using Eclipse?

Answer 3

Just stop your server from normal startup mode and select debug mode. Shortly after the server displays debugging,synchronised , continue to use web applications as usual. But before that, you must provide breakpoints, and you can see the results that you need.

It works for me.

Answer 4

First get the EE version of Eclipse Java EE

Then you need the Eclipse project containing the WEB-INF folder to be a dynamic web project. Then a full snap-in becomes available and allows you to work with your projects on any server, including Tomcat. The trick is to find the Server viewport and right-click to add a new Tomcat server adapter.