Debugging MySQL Triggers

There's an alternate way of testing it by having a temporary debug table. In the example here, they create it in an own debug database.

Step 1: Create a table

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS debug;
CREATE TABLE debug (
  proc_id varchar(100) default NULL,
  debug_output text,
  line_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  PRIMARY KEY  (line_id)
)

Step 2: Create debug SPs to fill the debug table

DELIMITER $$

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `debug_insert` $$
CREATE PROCEDURE `debug_insert`(in p_proc_id varchar(100),in p_debug_info text)
begin
  insert into debug (proc_id,debug_output)
  values (p_proc_id,p_debug_info);
end $$

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `debug_on` $$
CREATE PROCEDURE `debug_on`(in p_proc_id varchar(100))
begin
  call debug_insert(p_proc_id,concat('Debug Started :',now()));
end $$

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `debug_off` $$
CREATE PROCEDURE `debug_off`(in p_proc_id varchar(100))
begin
  call debug_insert(p_proc_id,concat('Debug Ended :',now()));
  select debug_output from debug where proc_id = p_proc_id order by line_id;
  delete from debug where proc_id = p_proc_id;
end $$

Step 3: Invoke the debug SPs in your trigger

Like this,

CREATE PROCEDURE test_debug()
begin
declare l_proc_id varchar(100) default 'test_debug';
  call debug_on(l_proc_id);
  call debug_insert(l_proc_id,'Testing Debug');
  call debug_off(l_proc_id);
end $$

As a result the debug table would be filled as follows,

+------------------------------------+
| debug_output                       |
+------------------------------------+
| Debug Started :2006-03-24 16:10:33 |
| Testing Debug                      |
| Debug Ended :2006-03-24 16:10:33   |
+------------------------------------+

You can debug triggers using dbForge Studio for MySQL. Try trial version.

There is a detailed description of the trigger debugging process in the documentation: Debugging \ Debugging Stored Routines \ How To: Start Trigger Debugging.