This section will provide suggestions for finding and fixing problems in your EASAPs.

Many times, especially in the first stages of the life-cycle of an EASAP, the main root of problems are DORs that are not set properly. The Analyse EASAP link under Testing in the Author Pages (pictured below) opens the EASAP in it’s current state, just like the Test EASAP link, but on the bottom of the screen the Debug Tool will appear.

The Debug Tool (pictured below) shows the values of any DORs in the EASAP in runtime and is used to keep track of them. Combined with the Application logs, this is a very effective way to determine which DORs are preventing the desired behavior of the EASAP and how they should be fixed. On the left side of the Debug Tool is the Search DORs area. You can search any DOR values with their object name within the empty textbox here and the then add them to the list of watched DORs on the right with the Add Watch button. The list is automatically updated as you type and it can be manually refreshed if necessary by the Refresh button.

On the right side of the Debug Tool is the Watch area. Here, all the DORs are listed that were included in any Show DORs parameter in the EASAP Builder or were added by pressing the Add Watch button.

You can see the object names of the listed DORs under the DOR name column and their corresponding values under the DOR value column. At this point the values are not updated automatically, you can do this by pressing the Refresh all values button. Pressing a remove button will clear that DOR from the list.
For more on troubleshooting DORs, please see DOR Tables on the following pages.

A link with the name of the EASAP (2D Plotter.log in the picture on previous pages) points to a log file specific to the EASAP and the EASA server that it is located on. It logs DOR exceptions related to the EASAP. These exceptions occur when one or more settings in the EASAP Builder tool are wrong in some respect, like missing, conflicting or invalid values for example. The Analyse EASAP tool is an effective way to investigate and fix the exceptions that might occur.

A good idea to consider when an EASAP test run does not function as expected is to view files created during the run by clicking on the Browse button ( in the Files column of the Test Results table. Upon clicking on this link, a window, as shown in the figure below, will appear containing a list of files associated with the test run.

Two diagnostics files are generated for each EASAP run submission: Err and Out files. Err files contain the standard error streams generated by the software being run by Process objects in your EASAP, while Out files contain the standard out stream. This information can prove very useful in determining what went wrong with an EASAP run.

To examine these files, look for file names in the testing files list of the form: err#.txt and out#.txt, where # is replaced with the number of the process on your EASAP tree, and then click on its name, which acts as a hyperlink that opens and displays the file content.

Tip: When viewing these files, look for common error messages that you encounter when running the underlying software applications outside of EASA.

Besides the Err and Out files, text files generated by underlying software during execution may also prove to be valuable as diagnostics files. These files can also be accessed from the testing files list by clicking on their file name links.

There may come times when you will be unable to determine the cause of problems on your own. In these cases, it may be useful for an EASA Support Representative to examine the EASAP’s GuiConfig.ccl file. You access this file in the same manner as other diagnostic files by clicking on the Browse button in the Files column of the Test Results table, and then clicking on the GuiConfig.ccl link. Now, instead of displaying the file, a pop-up window like the one shown in the figure below will appear, which will allow you to save the file to your computer’s hard drive. After saving the file to your drive, you can then attach it to an e-mail to your local EASA Support Representative.

Note: This file download capability may be used for files other than the GuiConfig.ccl file.

Tip: You can also save the GuiConfig.ccl file to your disk drive by exporting the EASAP object at the very top of the EASAP Tree in EASAP Builder.

As mentioned before, very often errors in EASAPs are related to problems with DORs (also see “Analyse EASAP” on the previous pages). To help you find and fix problems related to DORs, all objects that have values and therefore could be used in a DOR are listed in DOR tables. These DOR tables are accessed by clicking on the View DORs button ( ) in the DORs column of the Test Results table. The DOR tables contain the following information:

- Object name - Object Type - Object value - Any error messages returned during evaluation of the object

Note: The complete DOR tables for an EASAP may span several pages.

Tip: When you fix problems with object values in EASAP Builder, you do not need to resubmit a test run. Instead, you should use the Latest DORs link on the DOR tables pages to examine the changes that you have made.

Another useful way to understand the DORs is to explore the dependency relationships. This can be done via the DORs tab in EASAP Builder.

In the example below it shows how the “Cloads” Repeated Expand object is dependent on Lc, xc and yc, and that xc in turn is dependent on xloc.

The objects can be sorted alphabetically, by type or by the order in which they originally appear in the tree. These sort settings correspond to the last three icons on the DORs toolbar. The second icon provides a different tree which allows you to explore where a DOR is used. In this case, we can see that the realbox W is used by a number of compute objects such as dx, but also by diagram objects such as dimB.

The tree can be filtered using the search box above the tree. This supports a variety of searches including wildcards and control over case sensitivity.

After reviewing the diagnostic files, the next step is to determine the causes of any problems. Often the causes will be found in the following list of common errors.

Symptoms: Error messages are found in diagnostic files complaining of illegal input in batch files. Underlying software application does not execute properly.

Solution: The problem here is that the DOR will be replaced by EASA, but the underlying software will not accept it as valid input. The following procedure will guide you through the correction of this problem.

1. Look for any indications within error messages found in diagnostics files as to the location within the batch file of the troublesome numbers. If the locations of these invalid numbers is given, then proceed to Step 3 to correct the number formats that gave rise to them.
   
   
2. If no locations are given in any of the error messages, you will need to compare the batch file used in the test run with the corresponding batch file used in your manual test that you know works. Using your template batch file as a guide, proceed to each DOR location in the two batch files and identify numbers with improper formats in the test run batch file.
   
   
3. Fix the number formats in the template batch file by editing it using the Template Editor. To open the file in the editor, click on its Edit button in the Template Files table found on the Template Editor page under the Authoring menu.

Symptoms: Numerical results generated are not as expected and do not match what was generated during manual testing of batch files. Underlying software application does not execute properly.

Solution: This type of error is similar in difficulty to the previous error to locate and fix. Again the problem DORs will still be replaced by EASA, but the numbers provided to the underlying software will be incorrect due to improper units. The following procedure will guide you through the correction of this problem.

1. You will need to compare the batch file used in the test run with the corresponding batch file used in your manual test that you know works. Using your template batch file as a guide, proceed to each DOR location in the two batch files and identify numbers in the test run batch file that are not the same value as in the working batch file.
   
   
2. Fix the units in the template batch file by editing it using the Template Editor. To open the file in the editor, click on its Edit button in the Template Files table found on the Template Editor under the Authoring menu. You may need to change an existing unit specification or add the proper unit specification in the DOR.

Note: Remember that no inline units in a DOR will cause an object’s value to be evaluated in base units during replacement.

Symptoms: Underlying software application does not execute at all. Error messages will indicate unrecognized command or improper usage of command.

Solution: This type of error is usually straightforward to diagnose and fix. Once you have identified the problem with the command, you need to modify the Run Using parameter in the appropriate Process object in EASAP Builder.

Symptoms: Numerical results generated are not as expected and do not match what was generated during manual testing of batch files. Underlying software application does not execute properly.

Solution: This type of error is similar in difficulty to the Incorrect Units in DOR error. Again the problem DORs will still be replaced by EASA, but the values provided to the underlying software will be incorrect due to incorrect manipulation of user inputs. Incorrect manipulation of user inputs will occur in Data Processing objects located on the User Interface and Processes branches of your EASAP tree. The following procedure will guide you through the correction of this problem.

1. You will need to compare the values of the DORs in your template batch file with the corresponding values in the batch file used in your manual test that you know works. Using your template batch file as a guide, proceed to each DOR location in the two batch files and identify replacement values in the test run batch file that are not the same value as in the working batch file.
   
   
2. Make use of the DOR tables to locate problems with any related object values.
   
   
3. Identify and correct the problem Data Processing objects by examining and then modifying their parameter values in EASAP Builder. Possible errors include:
   
   
   • Inputs and Outputs are not in correct order in Map object.
   • Typographical errors exist in Value parameter of Expand object, such as missing or misplaced \n new line symbols.
   • Incorrect expression used in Value parameter of Compute object.