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Offline debugging by using Pega-TracerViewer

Updated on January 14, 2022

The Pega-TracerViewer tool presents and summarizes Tracer output data, that is saved in an .xml file, in an interactive table or tree format. By using TracerViewer, you can analyze the Tracer data offline to understand what happens on your system, determine where performance bottlenecks occur, and diagnose additional issues.

Note: The Pega-TracerViewer requires Java for launch and is provided as-is in an open source GitHub repository. The viewer is not a licensed Pegasystems product. Ensure that you download and use the latest version of the Pega-TracerViewer tool. The README.md file might include information about additional prerequisites, for example a Java version that the latest Pega-TracerViewer requires. For more information, see Pega-TracerViewer.

After you run the Tracer tool on Pega Platform, save the output as an .xml file to your local system, and then open it in the viewer.

Key features of Pega-TracerViewer

By using the TracerViewer, you can perform the following actions:

  • View the Tracer data offline after the test is complete.
  • Organize the data in a table or in tree views.
  • Sort the data, for example, by the slowest call.
  • Search the Tracer tool output data.
  • View Performance tool statistics for each interaction.
  • View alerts and SQL statements in the context of where and when they occur.
  • Group traced events by a key, such as a unique SQL statement, stream, activity, or method.

Starting with the 3.3 version, the TracerViewer supports standard Pega Platform applications that rely on Cosmos React. The output depends on the type of application that you trace. For Cosmos React, the output additionally includes DX API interaction IDs and DX API paths.

Debugging applications by using Pega-TracerViewer

Fix issues, prevent bottlenecks, and analyze events in your application by using the Pega-TracerViewer tool. You can generate Tracer output in an .xml format so that you can continue debugging offline or share the results with other developers.

The viewer runs as an executable file from a directory on your operating system.

    Obtaining and starting Pega-TracerViewer

  1. Download the latest version of the viewer from https://github.com/pegasystems/pega-tracerviewer/releases.
  2. Extract the files into a directory on your local operating system.
    Ensure that you maintain the viewer's directory structure.
  3. Open the README.md file for instructions on how to launch the Pega-TracerViewer.
  4. Viewing Tracer output data in the TracerViewer

  5. Start the Tracer tool and configure the tool to capture the information about the areas that you want to investigate, for example, the event types to trace.
    Note: If you plan to analyze the results in the tree view, in the Trace Options window, for events such as activities that have Begin and End options, either select or clear both check boxes to ensure that the viewer nests the events correctly in the tree view.
  6. From Pega Platform, run the process that you want to investigate.
    For example: If you want to investigate the performance of a specific business process, run that process. As you perform actions on the system, the Tracer tool captures data according to the criteria that you set in step 4.
  7. In the Tracer window, click Save to download the .xml file to your downloads directory.
  8. In the header of the TracerViewer, click FileLoad Pega Tracer File File.
  9. In the file directory window, navigate to the .xml file with the Tracer output, and then open the file.
Result: You can view the Tracer results in offline mode, as displayed in the following figures:
TracerViewer results
A TracerViewer results window for a Pega Platform application
TracerViewer for Cosmos React
TracerViewer results window for a Cosmos React UI application

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