B4J Tutorial Remote debugging with B4J-Bridge

Erel · Mar 13, 2014

B4J v1.80 adds support for remote debugging using B4J-Bridge, a tool similar to the beloved B4A-Bridge.

The purpose of B4J-Bridge is to allow you to connect the IDE to a remote machine such as a Mac computer or a Raspberry Pi board and to easily debug your app on the remote machine. The connection is done over the network (usually the local network).

Instructions

Download b4j_bridge.jar to the remote machine: www.b4x.com/b4j/files/b4j-bridge.jar
Note that you can download it with this command:
B4X:
```
wget www.b4x.com/b4j/files/b4j-bridge.jar
```
Tip: delete the previous version before download: rm b4j-bridge.jar
Make sure that Java 8+ is installed on the remote machine.
Open a terminal and run java -jar b4j-bridge.jar:

If you are running it on a raspberry pi together with the jPi4J library then you need to run it with:
B4X:
```
sudo java -jar b4j-bridge.jar
```
Choose Tools -> B4J-Bridge -> Connect and enter the remote machine IP address:
The status icon should change to:
Now you can run your app in Release or Debug mode and debug it directly on the target machine:

You can disconnect with Shift + F2 and later reconnect with F2.
Note that the jar is copied to the target machine and deployed under a folder named tempjars.

If the debugger fails to connect to the remote machine then you should open the following ports for incoming connections:
59812, 8937 and 8938

Updates

v1.50 - Adds support for signed Mac Java 14. See the Java section here: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/building-notarized-mac-packages.130890
v1.44 - Adds support for Java versions above Java 11.

jcohedman · Sep 14, 2016

Hi, it works!
but... in "Debug" mode don't, "Error: JavaFX runtime components are missing, and are required to run this application"
and in Release mode, if I write in the rpi: sudo /home/pi/jdk8/bin/ java -jar "my_app".jar, it is working.
What can be wrong?
thanks in advance.

Erel · Sep 14, 2016

Which computer are you using?

jcohedman · Sep 21, 2016

hi, with this statement: sudo /home/pi/jdk8/bin/java -jar b4j-bridge.jar runs ok!

MbedAndroid · Oct 6, 2016

there is no way to debug on distance? even when i set the portforward?
I tried to insert a external Ip adress but that isnt accepted

Erel · Oct 6, 2016

It is possible.

MbedAndroid said:
I tried to insert a external Ip adress but that isnt accepted

What is not accepted? Make sure to enter the ip address and not the host name.

MbedAndroid · Oct 6, 2016

ok, i see
if i start to enter a new Ip, you will get "invalid adress" until i entered all the numbers.

thought it was already rejected on the the first group of the ip number

sorry

Erel · Dec 25, 2016

B4J-Bridge v2.20 was released. It includes an built-in FTP server. This makes it simpler to download or upload files to the remove computer.

Note that you can disable the FTP server with the -disableftp parameter:

B4X:

java -jar b4j-bridge -disablefto

Starchild · Dec 27, 2016

Great addition.

I successfully tried using FTP FileZilla to access my remote Linux development box (ubuntu) using the FTP server of b4j-bridge v2.20.

Works great, but it is limited by the available root on the Linux box being the TempJars folder.

It would be useful to be able to move higher up the directory tree so the b4j-bridge FTP server could be used to access other directories/files. Maybe another command line switch.

Anyway, it's a very simple and useful addition for quickly moving application support files onto the Linux box.

Thanks.

Erel · Nov 28, 2018

B4J-Bridge v1.42 released. Adds support for Java 11.

Don Oso · Dec 5, 2018

B4j-bridge v1.42 fails in Ubuntu 16.04 with just java 8 installed its possible to upload the version who works with java 8?

Thanks

Don Oso · Dec 5, 2018

Don Oso said:
B4j-bridge v1.42 fails in Ubuntu 16.04 with just java 8 installed its possible to upload the version who works with java 8?

Thanks

View attachment 75077

I found in my backup projects the source code of b4j-bridge v1.20 .. now im running.

Erel · Dec 6, 2018

B4J-Bridge v1.43 released. Same as v1.42 but compiled with Java 8 to make it compatible with Java 8+.

Erel · Feb 6, 2020

v1.44 - Adds support for Java versions above Java 11.

ajk · May 10, 2020

OMG super tool. My mac is lucky. Erel you are great !

Added _2020_06_01_
Chapeau bas Erel ! My VPS server remote debugging works !

Erel · May 20, 2021

v1.50 - Adds support for signed Mac Java 14. See the Java section here: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/building-notarized-mac-packages.130890

JanG · May 18, 2022

Erel said:
The source code of B4J-Bridge is attached. It is not required for running B4J-Bridge.

Would you share the source of 1.50? This one is only 1.44.

Thank you and bye...
Jan

Erel · May 19, 2022

Done.

B4J Tutorial Remote debugging with B4J-Bridge

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