Testing a user-defined node

You must deploy the files that make up your user-defined node project to your workbench before your user-defined node is available for use. You can do this in a test environment by using the Plug-in Development Perspective in the workbench. Use the Run > Run as > Runtime Workbench option to start a new copy of the workbench with the extra nodes included. For more information on this perspective see PDE Guide.

You should see the new nodes in the palette when you open your Message Flow editor. To test your new node, add it to a message flow (see Adding a node) and deploy as usual. Once you are happy with your node definition, add the new node into your normal palette of nodes in the Message Flow editor (see Distributing a user-defined node). Until you do this, the new nodes will be available only in your test workbench session.

Start of changeWhen you have a workbench session that includes your new node, you can deploy a test message flow containing your new node to a broker. You must have created, compiled and installed the plugin node first before you can deploy it. See Installing a user-defined extension on a broker domain for more information.End of change

You could use the rapid application development (RAD) component to test your node, as this is intended as a quick way for someone who is developing message flow applications to repeatedly test their message flows in a safe environment, before they are used on a production system. For information on how to use RAD, see Using rapid application development (RAD).

When you have set up and deployed a message flow containing your user-defined node, and sent a test message to it, there are a number of diagnostic tools available for you to determine whether your node works, or if not, where it went wrong.
  1. Start of changeUse event logging. See Using event logging from a user-defined extension for more information.End of change
  2. Check the event log (see Event Log editor for information about this).
  3. Add a Trace node to your message flow, and check the output from it (see Trace node for information about Trace nodes).
  4. Use the flow debugger to debug the flow containing your node (see Testing and debugging message flow applications for information about this).
Related concepts
User-defined input nodes
User-defined message processing nodes
User-defined output nodes
Related tasks
Developing user-defined extensions
Adding a node
Testing and debugging message flow applications
Resolving problems with user-defined extensions
Using rapid application development (RAD)
Distributing a user-defined node
Related reference
Event Log editor
Trace node
User-defined extensions