Flex / ActionScript: Debugging causes Firefox to crash

After an update to Firefox 3.6.6 I've noticed that while debugging Flash it would crash and display "The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed". It turns out it's due to a new feature called "Hang Protection" that allows Flash to run in it's own sandbox and not take down the whole browser when/if it crashes. After 45 seconds the browser will close Flash because it thinks Flash has stopped responding.

Hang Protection can be turned off so debugging with Flex Builder / Flash Builder will work properly. Follow the directions at this url.

NOTE
Firefox 4 requires a change to a different property. Use about:config to alter the behind the scenes settings and look for dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs and set it to -1.

Flex / ActionScript: Debugging

I ran into an issue while working on a project in flex. I was trying to figure out why something wasn't working and had a large amount of trace calls in my code. It was a complete pain to remove them all. This lead me to develop a debug class that I can turn off at a page level or you can turn if off in the class. It's a first draft. I'd like to make it a Singlton so I can turn it off for the whole project at a page level, but that's for later.

package 
{
public class Debug
{
private var _displayDebug:Boolean = false;
private var _incomingClass:String = "";
private var _logArray:Array = [];

//to stop all debugging set this to false
private var _turnOffDebug:Boolean = false;

/**
* Create the debug object 
* @param display
* @param fileName
* 
*/
public function Debug(display:Boolean, fileName:String): void {
_displayDebug = display;
_incomingClass = fileName;
}


/**
* Display a trace message 
* @param msg
* 
*/
public function log(msg:String) : void {
//override anything a debug passes in
if(_turnOffDebug) {
return;
}

if(!_displayDebug) {
return;
}

var logMessage:String = "["+ new Date() +"]" + _incomingClass + ": " + msg; 

trace(logMessage);
_logArray.push(logMessage);
}
}
}

Using the class is simple. First create an instance of the class and tell if wither you want it on and what the name of the script you're calling it from is named.

var debugObj:Debug = new Debug(true, 'main.mxml');

To turn off debugging for the script just set the first parameter to false. To turn it off for the whole project change the class variable _turnOffDebug to true;

Use the log method to display your statement in the debug area of flash or flex.

debugObj.log('debug statement');

This is a what the trace statement should look like.
[Fri Sep 25 15:03:21 GMT-0700 2009]main.mxml: debug statement

If you have any feedback please send me a message.

Flex: Multiple Application MXML files

At a point in a project I'm currently working on we had to intergrate with another application. That means creating a new Application MXML file and degrading the current Application MXML file. Creating the new Applicaion was simple, but Flex was confused as to which file it should use to launch the project. This can be updated in the project properties.

1) Right-click the project and goto Properties

2) Goto the "Flex Applications". There you will see all the files that are marked as Applications.

3) Select the new Applicaion file and click "Set as Default". When you click "Run" or "Debug" it will use this file to launch your project.

4) Click on the old Applicaion file and click "Remove". This won't delete the file.

Hope this makes transitioning to a new project easier.

Also remember to remove any styleName properties from your old Application tag.

Flex: Switching the debug default browser

I've started working in Flex quite a bit now. One of things that has bothered me is Flex always launches a debug window in Internet Explorer. I've been having some problems with the browser and would like to use something different, but couldn't figure out how to switch it. Someone showed me how this morning.

1) Goto Window => Preferences

2) Goto General => Web Browser

3) Select the browser you want to launch in the "External Web browsers" window.

Now your debug session should launch in your browser of choice.