Tutorial Details
- Program: Firefox
- Estimated Completion Time: 5 mins
In this really quick, but invaluable tip, we’ll look at how to view the output of your Flash movie trace calls in the browser.
Step 1: What is Flash Tracer?
Flash Tracer is a Firefox add-on. It lets you view the output of the trace() method used in your flash movies in the browser. This can be very helpful when testing your application online using browser related tasks like ExternalInterface for example.
Step 2: Requirements
To use Flash Tracer you will need Firefox 2.0 or later and the Flash Player Debug version installed. You can view a list of the available Flash Players at the Flash Player Support site.
Step 3: Features
Besides displaying the output generated, Flash Tracer supports other basic features like:
Pros:
- Live Filters: Lets you filter the output using basic patterns.
- Custom Styles: Applies a custom CSS formating to the output.
Step 4: Download it!
You can get Flash Tracer using the Mozilla add-ons website or at the author’s site.
Step 5: Testing
Time to try a SWF file to test Flash Tracer.
Select a file that outputs a value and navigate to it using Firefox to see the result:
Conclusion
This is an easy way to test your applications in the browser and still receive the output from trace calls, try it!
Thank you for reading!
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By Carlos Yanez
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Not to put you down or anything, but I think it’s kind of odd to mention FlashTracer and not FlashBug.
The latest update for FlashTracer (2.3.1) was July 7 2008. Not a bad extension – I’ve used it a loved it myself!
However..
The latest update for FlashBug (1.7.0) was December 17 2010.
Check out FlashBug here: http://blog.coursevector.com/flashbug
If you’re using FireFox and want to install an extension for Flash tracing, you might as well use FireBug and FlashBug for it. It’s still being updated, keeps your development together in the FireBug section, and it even has a separate tab for SharedObjects.
Of course it’s just my opinion, but I see FlashBug to be light years ahead of Flash Tracer. For that reason, I cannot personally recommend anyone to use Flash Tracer, unless they have good reason to NOT use FlashBug. Each to his own, of course.
Thought it might be worth pointing this out. You’re welcome.
Good point, thanks Karl! Maybe we’ll do a separate post on FlashBug later, highlighting the advantages.
To be fair to Carlos, Flash Tracer is a bit more lightweight than FlashBug so that might be the one reason to use it instead of FlashBug.
Also, forgot to mention – FlashBug has live decompiling. Yes, you read that right :)
Adds “details” pane to the Net panel, in which you can export images, shapes and sounds etc. Quite insane!
thanks for the information but I face a problem, when I open Flash Tracer from tools menu it wrote “flashlog.txt file doesn’t exists. Open settings dialog first.”
Note: I have adobe flash cs5 installed and latest flash player add-on for firefox
Do I have to install one of the following:
Windows
* DownloadDownload the Windows Flash Player 10.1 ActiveX control content debugger (for IE) (EXE, 2.93 MB)
* DownloadDownload the Windows Flash Player 10.1 Plugin content debugger (for Netscape-compatible browsers) (EXE, 2.90 MB)
* DownloadDownload the Windows Flash Player 10.1 Projector content debugger (EXE, 6.23 MB)
* DownloadDownload the Windows Flash Player 10.1 Projector (EXE, 5.30 MB)
and if so, which one ?
You should get the debugger player for Firefox, so that would be this one:
* DownloadDownload the Windows Flash Player 10.1 Plugin content debugger (for Netscape-compatible browsers) (EXE, 2.90 MB)
I use Vizzy (http://code.google.com/p/flash-tracer/). it’s free and most importantly cross-platform.
“Vizzy runs out-of-the-box and configures your environment for you to start debugging your flash applications immediately (automatic mm.cfg file creation, determining location, debug flash player detection, etc.)”