Hi Paul,
I am not using J2EE RI, but I think it is possible to remote debug with it. Forte has its debugging J2EE RI option. (Or is it internal server only for debugging? I am not sure.)
As far as NetBeans is conserned,
http://www.netbeans.org/articles/weblogic-remote-debug.html This is an article describing how to remote debug WebLogic from NetBeans. I haven't tried it, but it might be a way to do it with J2EE RI.
There are some
testing tools you can use.
JUnit:
http://www.junit.org cactus:
http://jakarta.apache.org/cactus/ It is like you code the test cases, and those tools run unit tests against classes or containers based on the test cases. I just started using those, but I think these tools are very useful.
I could not provide you with a clear-cut answer to your problem, but I hope this info will be a starting point for the solution.
I'll post more if I find something.
If you find out how,
please post it here.
I am interested, too.
Shin Hashitani