Eclipse debugging : Stack trace on event

Question

Im trying to get the code flow of an open source platform. I have got the source code and ran the program from eclipse. The program has an option called "Run job" and I want to know where the control goes when that option is clicked. How can achieve this?

Answer 1

First, try to identify the control with the label "Run job".

You could do this by searching the source code in Eclipse with Search > File and then setting "Containing Text" to "Run job" and "File name patterns" to "*.java".

Probably in the same file, there is an ActionListener (or similar) added to the control that calls a method, when the control is clicked. This is the method you're looking for. (Add a breakpoint to see the flow in the debugger or try to understand it from the code.)

Answer 2

Apart from searching for the appropriate handlers and buttons in the source code (if you know the names), you can also enable tracing.

In your run configuration, there should be a tab for tracing. There, you'll want to enable some of the options under org.eclipse.ui that start with trace/ .

You will get a lot of debug output, and there might be no trace option for the event you'd like to see. However it works well for things like keybindings ( trace/keyBindings ) and knowing which UI element got an event ( trace/graphics ). Note that some also take arguments, eg a commandId (something like org.eclipse.ui.edit.copy , will depend on your application).

You can find a small help text for each option here .