Orbeon Forms: debugging Options

Question

We've determined that you can do limited debugging by placing the following code in your XML to trap statements that dont work:

<message>Debug Point n</message>

Does anyone have any other tips like this to help debug forms.

We have also looked in Chrome's code inspector (F12) to see if that helps. And again any tips would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance

PeteA

Answer 1

Here are a few things that come to mind:

• To see the XML data the form is working on, depending on your ability to change properties:
  • Enable the XForms Inspector by setting the oxf.epilogue.xforms.inspector property to true (doc).
  • Add a Calculated Value field, in its Control Settings, Formulas, Calculated Value, using xxf:serialize(/*, 'xml'). You'll then want to copy the content of the field, paste it an XML editor, and reformat it for readability.
• Generally use Calculated Value field to debug formulas.
• When writing code with the Actions Syntax, use the <fr:alert message="…"/> (doc).
• With services you define in Form Builder, in the HTTP Services dialog, use the Test to see what is returned by the service, and if the service returns JSON, to see the XML produced by Orbeon Forms from the JSON.