Introduction

1. Public Release 0.5 Alpha

The aim of this release is a first public testing of the project, particularly on the many JSP/servlet containers out there.

1.1. Testing, testing, 1...2...3

Feedback on the performance (or failure!) of ObjectSnoop on your system is both needed and very much appreciated. That way I can improve ObjectSnoop for everyone to use.

Included in the download is a test JSP page that can be used to put ObjectSnoop through its paces. If you can, please post the results or email them to me.

Some results may show information that is sensitive to you or your organization, so please audit your submissions.

In the case of failure, any additional information that you can give would be extremely helpful: stack traces and the formatter/filter combinations you were using are particularly important.

The bug tracking forum is the best place for posting information about whether ObjectSnoop has worked for you or not. I'd suggest the following message title format so others can see what's been tested already:

Tomcat 4.0.4/JDK 1.3.1/Snoop 0.5 (passed/failed)

E-mail: ian_jefferies (at) users.sourceforge.net

2. Introduction to ObjectSnoop

ObjectSnoop is intended to assist in debugging applications by inspecting an object and logging its current state. This includes recursively examining owned member objects. Filters can be added that recognize objects by class or interface, and can provide specialized interpretation.

Particular emphasis is placed on use with Java Server Pages and Servlets, and writing formatted output to HTML. This includes support via a tag library, as well as filters for interpreting the state of objects defined within the JSP and servlet specifications.

Reading through this manual should get you up and running. I've tried to make it as easy as possible to you use ObjectSnoop as a debugging tool; there should be at most only one import statement and one line of code necessary to get you snooping.

ObjectSnoop is tested and developed in a Win32 environment. Some of the descriptions may be biased towards this system.

3. Testing and System Requirements

Tested and developed with JDK 1.4.0, Tomcat 4.0.4.
Standalone: Uses Java API components available since JDK 1.2
Servlet/JSP container: supports JSP 1.2 and Servlet 2.3 specifications.
With Tomcat 4.0.4: Requires JDK 1.2 (Tomcat requirement).
Other servlet/JSP containers may impose stronger restrictions.