CF Builder 2018 debugging source not found

Alicia, there's a simple answer (perhaps) and then a longer one (which may benefit you and others who find this thread).

So yep, getting the CFBuilder debugger working right is awfully fiddly. It can be done (I’ve been helping people do it for over a decade), but there are several moving parts.

And yep, one of those is indeed about mapping the local drive folders holding the CF code to run (as CF Builder sees them) to the remote drive folders (as CF itself sees them). In your example, if the F drive is what CFB would see locally, that’s fine. But you show the G drive for the remote. Is that how YOU see the remote folders (via some OS mapping), like how you see it in Windows explorer on your machine where CFBuilder is installed? If so, that is NOT the right path. Instead, you need to know what the drive and folder would be ON THE SERVER where CF is running.

That may be enough to get you going.

If not, there are several resources that address this. Not only about setting up CFBuilder remote debugging in particular but also CF Builder debugging in general (including the many other fiddly bits to get it working):

• https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/using-coldfusion-builder/debugging-applications.html#Debuggingremoteapplications
  
  • and that last link is within an entire manual on using CF Builder, which many never find (or realize even they find that page), which starts at https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/user-guide.html 
• https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/developing-applications/developing-cfml-applications/using-the-coldfusion-debugger/set-up-coldfusion-to-use-the-debugger.html
  
  • and that last link is a section withing a much larger section of that manual, here: https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/developing-applications/developing-cfml-applications/using-the-coldfusion-debugger.html, where it is one of the first 5 subsections listed there that are about the debugger (the last few, curiously, are not).

They may help many, but most folks need more to "get it" all, and I have tried to help over the years.

Most recently I did a presentation back in (yikes) 2010, called “Setting up ColdFusion Builder Step Debugging”. While the CFB interface has changed some since then, most of the tips and techniques from then still apply. Note that since it was very hands-on, I had no slides, but the session was recorded (link is there) and I also offered a PDF of notes to go with the talk (also there): https://www.carehart.org/presentations/#cfb_debugger_setup

And before that, I did a 25-page chapter introducing the CFBuilder debugger feature in the CF9 Web Application Construction Kit book. That was made available online at the time (again, 2009, yikes), and I have it saved on my site at https://www.carehart.org/articles/CFWACK9-debugchapter.pdf. Again, things in CFB have changed even a bit more since then, but it too focused on addressing common challenges and I had a lot more “space” there to explain things, so even as old as it is it may be valuable. (There was never anyplace else that discussed the CFBuilder debugger in so much detail.)

I should add that I would be remiss not to mention also that anyone seeing this who has the FusionReactor monitor (for CF and Java) in its Ultimate edition should know that it also offers its own implementation of a step debugger. It foregoes the need to use CFBuilder, the CF RDS feature, and many of the other “fiddly bits” of getting step debugging working in CFBuilder.

But again, it can be done (using CFBuilder’s step debugger), and of course it’s free.

That said, if it’s of help, I will say that I also can help you directly (remotely, via screenshare) in the form of a consulting session, to get any of this working, where I suspect we could have you doing step debugging within a half hour (since I know of all the various moving parts that need to be setup correctly). For more on my services, including rates, approach, and satisfaction guarantee, see carehart.org/consulting. But if you want to simply try on your own, I hope the above (especially the first point) may help. And of course I and others will be here to answer questions.

Finally, some readers finding this thread in the future may wonder if I might do an updated version of my resources on using the CFB debugger (whether a new talk or a blog post or series), especially for the sake of those getting started with it, and since the UI for moving around in the CF docs leaves a lot to be desired, even if one may have come across the pages above via their own google searching. The challenge for me is that I have lots of topics that I’d like to reprise, and only so much time to work on things, especially substantial topics like this. 🙂

Let us know how you go, Alicia.