You can use a debug launch configuration type in the Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge to attach the Debugger to a running client process. The client can be an ABL client, a WebSpeed agent, or an AppServer running on the same machine or a remote machine. The debug launch configuration type allows you to specify the connection type and properties of the remote or local external AVM to which you want to attach the Debugger. For more information, see Progress External OpenEdge AVM settings (Debug Configuration only).

To attach the Debugger to an external AVM running on another machine, you can use the debug launch configuration type and specify the host name and the port number of the external AVM. To attach it to a locally running AVM, you can specify its process ID and port number or choose from a list of all the locally running AVM processes that is displayed by the debug launch configuration type. When you attach the Debugger to a local AVM, Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge uses its process ID and attempts to make the process debug-ready on the specified port, if the AVM is not already running in the debug mode.

To make a successful connection with Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge, you must start the external AVM in the debug mode on the specified host and port. Only one debug client can connect to the specified AVM at any point of time. Once attached, an entry for that AVM is displayed in the Debug view. If Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge fails to connect to an external AVM, the Debug view shows the entry as terminated and displays an appropriate error message indicating connection failure.

The attached AVM notifies Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge only if a breakpoint is reached. So, in order to debug a file on the attached AVM, you must set a breakpoint in the source file before it is executed by the attached AVM (See Setting breakpoints for more information). You can add or remove breakpoints during debugging.

Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge also enables you to specify the source lookup paths on which it searches for the source code of the program being executed by the attached AVM. For more information, see Edit Source Lookup Path dialog.

You can suspend or disconnect the Debugger from the attached AVM using the options available on the Debug view toolbar or the context menu. For more information, see Suspending and disconnecting the Debugger from an attached AVM.