Debugging Java web applications

Debugging Java web applications is often necessary, but setting it up on different vendors can be difficult.
However, there is a generic, easy way to do this by setting the JVM running the web server in debug mode.

Jetty and Maven


export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=4000,server=y,suspend=n"
mvn jetty:run

Set up your IDE for remote debugging on port 4000 and you’re laughing!

Remote debugging applications running from Eclipse with IntelliJ

I’m not an advocate for using Eclipse or any of it’s relatives (IBM RAD). But on some projects, I can’t avoid having to use it because the project only works on in Eclipse.
As often as I can, I will try to use IntelliJ because of its superior user interface. But when the code can’t run from IntelliJ, I’ve set up a quick tutorial to setting up cross IDE debugging.

Problems with IntelliJ AspectJ plugin – SOLVED

I’ve looked into Oval Java Validation Framework, which seems quite nifty. The problem with it is that it doesn’t work right out of the box if you want the extra bonus features, such as pre and post validation. For that you need AspectJ support, and for that… Well, lets just say your learning curve put on some weight.

This post is regarding solving an issue you may get when trying to use IntelliJ’s AspectJ plugin. When running the test I’ve added here from IntelliJ, You get the message:

Error: ExactAnnotationTypePattern was written by a newer version of AspectJ