About Breakpoints

During task execution, each step may take only a second or two to complete, therefore, it may be difficult to debug certain steps that you suspect are not running properly. Breakpoints provide a means of pausing execution at a specified point in order for you to examine certain aspects of the task. It can be set at any step and can be used as many times as needed in a single task. Breakpoints take effect only when a task is run from the Task Builder. They are ignored when the task is triggered or executed outside of Task Builder.

When execution reaches a breakpoint step, the Task Builder pauses the task, at which point, you can verify proper completion of a particular step or inspect the data produced by the assortment of tabs located in the Debug pane. Depending on what you determine from the data displayed, you can then click Run to continue the task, click Step to continue the task step by step, or click Reset to stop the task in order to edit the steps. Additionally, the Breakpoints Debug tab can be used to examine and manage breakpoints within a given task.

To debug a task using breakpoints

1. In the Steps pane of the Task Builder, set breakpoints in one of the following ways:

   • On the step where you want the task to pause, click just to the left of the step in the space between the step and step number.

   • Select the step where you want the task to pause. Then on the Edit menu, click Toggle Breakpoint.

   • Select the step where you want the task to pause, and press F8.

   • A breakpoint is indicated by hand icon located to the left of the step. The step is also colored the Breakpoint color as set in the Color Preferences. An example of task steps that include breakpoints is displayed below.

     

2. In the Task Builder toolbar, click Run to run the task. The task runs and stops at the first breakpoint.

3. In the Task Builder Debug pane, click the Variables tab to check the current value of your variables. You may also want to check the Output view in the Debug pane.

4. Depending on what you determine from the data displayed, you can then click Run to continue the task, click Step to continue the task step by step, or click Reset to stop the task and edit the steps.