The Debug Mode Toolbar

The Debug mode toolbar buttons, listed in table Table:Debug Mode Toolbar Buttons below, enable you to perform operations such as running a script or pausing the script execution.

Table:Debug Mode Toolbar Buttons

Toolbar Button
Action

Executes script steps from script start until reaching a breakpoint or the script end. Clicking the arrow on the right of the Start button selects the playback mode from one of the following:
  • Play all: Plays all script steps.

  • Play with user delay: Starts script execution also taking into account possible delays encountered when the script steps were captured.

  • Play selected only: Plays the selected script steps only.

While playing a step or a number of steps, clicking this button pauses the step(s) execution. Upon clicking the Play button again, script execution resumes from the position where it was paused.

When clicked once, a graceful script execution stop is attempted. If the TestComposer execution engine is not set into an idle state, the button remains active and needs to be clicked again for terminating the script forcibly.

Sets a breakpoint, toggles it to inactive state, or removes it from the currently selected step.
Step inWhen a breakpoint is encountered that defined on a RunProcedure step, clicking this button steps into the pertaining procedure body and stops after executing the first step of the procedure.
Step OverExecutes the current step within a procedure body and then stops. This provides a way of executing a script one step at a time.
Step OutWhen clicking this button while in a procedure body, the subsequent procedure steps are executed, and execution stops at the script step following the RunProcedure step.
MainEach script executes a Main thread for the main script body and one additional thread for each step that executes in parallel. The Threads drop-down lists all currently active threads and enables you to select one of the active threads for visualizing its execution. Note: When an active thread is selected in the Threads control, its entry point in the Test Steps table is displayed using darker magenta.

If selected, autoscolling is enabled during test execution, so as to focus the Debug window on the currently executing step.

Using the Autoscroll Functionality in Debug Mode

When you are executing long scripts or scripts that use RunProcedure steps and wish to track the currently executing step, you can turn on the Autoscroll option. As a result, at execution time any steps that were initially shown collapsed in the Test Steps table are rendered in an expanded mode and the GUI automatically scrolls such as to display the currently executing step.

Enabling this functionality can prove useful, for example, when your test contains a RunProcedure step that calls a procedure with multiple steps, but the procedure body itself is located at a remote location in the test script.

In the Debug window if you scroll manually to another step, while autoscroll option is enabled, the Autoscroll check box is cleared and autoscrolling is disabled.

Selecting the Autoscroll option is equivalent to selecting the Autoscroll test to track step being executed option in the Debugging pane of the Test | Options window.

By default autoscroll is disabled. You can enable it from the Test menu in the ribbon.


  As an alternative for navigating to the currently executing step, you can choose the Go to executing step command that is accessible by right-clicking the Test Steps table and choosing this command from the popup menu that appears. When you choose this command, the Debug mode scrolls such as to display the current step, but does not follow subsequently executing steps.