i am relatively new to flow and am trying to debug a large piece of flow code by tracing it through step by step.
The input to the particular piece of code is an xml file, from which varibles are extracted. Is there any way of running the app which is passing the xml file, saving the contents of the pipeline at the start of the process and then loading them up within the flow editor so that I can trace through the values of the variables? I am told that there is.
Yes. Look at the descriptions for pub.flow:savePipelineToFile and pub.flow:restorePipelineFromFile. Put save as your first step and then run the app to submit the XML doc. Then disable the save, and put in a restore. Then you can step through the service multiple times.
This is a common debugging/troubleshooting technique. You’ll end up using it a lot.
What do you mean when you say that the “input to the particular piece of code is an xml file”? Is it a file name, a stream or array of bytes, or is it an XML node object?
If the latter, then another way that you can test the service is by going to Test in the menu and then clicking on Send XML File… (all the way at the bottom). A dialog box pops up asking you if you want to Trace or Step through the code and then another dialog box allows you to browse for an XML file on your computer to send through the service. This tool will automatically convert the XML file to an XML node and it will feed it to your service.