Two minor new features were also introduced: it is possible to turn off name trimming, and the values of variables is now displayed as a hover.

I created a screencast to show these new features (and also some other, as the last screencast was created over a year ago.

(If the embedded video does not show in your feed reader, you can watch it on YouTube.)

The changes are three-folds in this release: first, a view model is defined for the visualisation. This one is only interesting for us, developers, as it enables us to store calculated data together with the referenced variable or value, making it easier to produce new features in later releases.

The other changes are more visible: we integrated our approach with the debug platform: it is possible to add variables to the visualisation by using the context menu of the Variables View. For similar reasons, our custom filter implementation was replaced with the platform-defined logical structures. This means, more specific filters are available, and it is possible (at least for Java) for the user to define more in the corresponding Eclipse preferences page (Java/Debug/Logical Structures).

These stuctures provide a way to removed some (possibly) irrelevant variables from the visualisation, as it is possible to define on a per-type basis the relevant structure (and it is also possible to define multiple structures for the same type, allowing the user to choose between them).

These structures can be selected from the context menu of the values in the Visualisation view. Such a possible selection is depicted on the following screenshot:

Logical structure selection for an ArrayList

Warning: the logical structure selection is (and possibly will) not synchronized with the variables view.

Finally, some internal changes were made to ensure, the plug-in is easier to use, such as the ability to define custom orderings for some layouts.

For a list of all fixed issues visit our issue tracker.

The new release can be downloaded from our update site right now (http://eclipse.cubussapiens.hu), and hopefully shortly also from the Eclipse Marketplace.

Update: Detailed project information is available from our Google Code project page.

Update2: The new release is available (and installable) from the Eclipse Marketplace.

I’m proud to announce that after a long time, we finally managed to throw out a new release. I’ve managed to improve the core functionality therefore this release contains a significant advance in overall performance.

Also, Stampie managed to fix a long-awaited feature, the two-way synchronization with the variables view.

In the future, we plan to redesign the use-cases of the tool. Currently, we’re in an experimental phase, which means we do not know how we want it to work.

This includes some minor adjustments in order to provide a more seamless user experience (sorry for the bullshit, but I just couldn’t withstand it ).

Well, the new release fixes a nullpointer exception, and adds an option to save the current graph.

There are further tweaking regarding usability: the default layout is changed to Tree Layout in order to allow faster responses, and it is possible to hide the Local context node. These changes are the beginning of some serious overhaul, our goal is to increase the usability of the plugin.

The new release is called 0.7.0, as it introduces major new features:

• Preliminary support for Filtering nodes: similar to the Logical Structures feature it is possible to define the structure, and only visualise that (e.g. in case of Lists only the content should be depicted, not the other attributes).
• Drill in: it is possible to define a new top-level element instead of the Local Context, and hide other items.

There are also some minor updates, such as the reintroduction of the Simulated cooling layout algorithm.

On the other hand most changes are not visible in the user interface, but the revamped code should allow us to create some new features in the next service releases.

We recommend the update for everybody. Some technical information:

• After some fighting with the update site project the category information is lost. I have no idea of the cause.
• There is a new feature present in the update site: the Java Filter project defines filters for some items in the collections API.

I’m satisfied with the currently used approach (for now), as I’ve managed to separate different functionalities, and connect them in a simple way. Also, it is reasonably faster than before, but it still makes the eclipse lagging when the user steps the debug context, which I don’t know why (yet). Anyway, navigating in the graph, hiding/showing nodes and other display-related functions are now fast enough.

For a more detailed explanation of the new operation, see the wiki page InputPackage.

ps.: for a change as big as this, I’m thinking of a maintenance step in the version numbering (0.7.0 instead of 0.6.2), what do you think? I’m hesitating because of the lack of new features.

Version 0.6.0 introduced some serious regressions from the previous versions, so we decided to create a quick service release.

This release contains fixes for Stack Overflow and Hidden nodes issues, and added some minor new features as the ability to zoom the graph.

You can use P2 to automatically update your installation, or install the new version from the http://eclipse.cubussapiens.hu update site.

We are hoping, this release will be usable than the previous one.

It was a while ago I created this introductory screencast (it used a modified version of 0.5.1 (perhaps it can be considered as a never-released first alpha of 0.5.2), so it is not totally correct but it helps a lot to understand how this can be used.

If not, please don’t hesitate to inform us how to correct it.

After many hours of work we finally managed to release a new version of the Debug Visualisation project! This release is a complete rewrite of the previous version (0.5.X), and now it is built upon the JFace API and other standard eclipse technologies instead of different custom hackings. We expect improved stability and maintainability from the new techniques, which means that we can implement more advanced features in the plugin.

Currently, the new version does not include all functionality what the old version did, but we’re sure we will manage to reach it soon. For more information about this release, please refer to the release announcement.

Debug Visualisation for Eclipse… Who knows what is it good for. Maybe a quick detection of some misplaced references. Maybe more.

The project started as a home assignment for an Eclipse course at the university, but we were interested in it, so we continued the development. Our goal was to support the debugging process by helping the detection (or exploration) of the state space of the program.

We are not calling our software a 1.0 release, as we don’t think it can help in a lot of cases. But we believe it is worth to invest time to increase its usefulness. Maybe in the end something good will come out from it.

This page is started for reporting our progress, share ideas. We would be glad to hear your opinions about the project. Your idea may help – we are not capable of solving the problem in general, we need potential use cases. We need testing.

So to help the communication a blog is born. Please if you test our project, give us feedback: what do you like, what are the worst points. Do you have an idea to share with us? We are glad to hear it. Maybe we will implement it, if we are interested enough. Or if you implement it, we are glad to include it. So let’s rock.