Chapter 11. Debugging

11.1. Managing build processes with the Open Liberty Maven plug-in

You can build and test your applications, whether they are simple applications with a single module or more complex applications that consist of multiple modules.

After you define the details and dependencies of a project, Maven automatically downloads and installs all of the dependencies. It also runs automated tests on an application after it is built. If the tests don’t pass after you update an application, the build fails. You must fix your code.

The following coordinates for the Maven plug-in are required:

<groupId>io.openliberty.tools</groupId>
<artifactId>liberty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0</version>

To learn how to configure a simple web servlet application by using Maven and the Liberty Maven plug-in, see Building a web application with Maven.

Jakarta EE applications consist of multiple modules that work together as one entity. To learn how to build an application with multiple modules by using Maven and Open Liberty, see Creating a multi-module application.

11.2. Tracing Requests

Distributed tracing helps you troubleshoot microservices by examining and logging requests as they propagate through a distributed system, allowing developers to tackle the otherwise difficult task of debugging these requests. Without a distributed tracing system in place, it’s difficult to analyze workflows and pinpoint when and by whom a request is received or when a response is returned.

To learn how to monitor and trace logging requests across microservices in an application, see Enabling distributed tracing in microservices.