Debugging an Oxygen SDK Extension Using the Eclipse Workbench

To debug problems in the extension code without having to bundle the extension's Java classes in a JAR library, perform the following steps:
  1. Download and unpack an all platforms standalone version of Oxygen XML Author/Editor to a folder on your hard drive.
    Note: Name the folder [OXYGEN_DIR].
  2. Create an Eclipse Java Project (let's call it MySDKProject) with the corresponding Java sources (for example a custom implementation of the ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.StylesFilter interface).
  3. In the Project's build path add external JAR references to all the JAR libraries in the [OXYGEN_DIR]/lib folder. Now your Project should compile successfully.
  4. Start the standalone version of Oxygen from the [OXYGEN_DIR] and in the Document Type Association Preferences page edit the document type (for example DITA). In the Classpath tab, add a reference to your Project's classes directory and in the Extensions tab, select your custom StylesFilter extension as a value for the CSS styles filter property. Close the application to save the changes to the framework file.
  5. Create a new Java Application configuration for debugging. The Main Class should be ro.sync.exml.Oxygen. The given VM Arguments should be
    -Dcom.oxygenxml.app.descriptor=ro.sync.exml.EditorFrameDescriptor -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=384m
  6. Add a break point in one of the source Java classes.
  7. Debug the created configuration. When the code reaches your breakpoint, the debug perspective should take over.