Flex Carnival

Flash builder debugger and Firefox 4

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:07:40 PDT

Firefox 4 kills Flex application when the breakpoint is hit while debugging the flex application from Flash builder.

Firefox assumes the plugin has become unresponsive and it kills the plugin after waiting for 45 seconds for the plugin to respond.

To workaround this issue, go to about:config from the Firefox address bar.

Filter for 'dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs'. Double click on the value to edit and set it to -1

Flash Builder Profiler Enhancements - Retained Heap view and Tree View Object Reference

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 06:08:30 PDT

Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 profiler has two new changes to its existing view.

1. Showing Tree View Object reference
2. Showing Retained Heap Size of the Object

Memory snapshot view and object reference view of Flash builder profiler, now shows the object references in a tree view instead of table view. In the tabular view, when the paths were common, it used repeat and show all the paths. Tree view will show the object references in a hierarchical view making easier for developers to analyze the paths to GC.

Retained heap of an object is the amount of heap memory which will be released if the current object is released. When the memory snapshot is opened, memory snapshot view will contain two additional columns showing retained heap size of an object as well as shallow heap size of an object.

Once the user double clicks on one of the classes in the "memory snapshot view" to view all the "Instances"/"Object references view" of that class, retained heap will be visible along with the shallow memory.

In the above case, following would be the shallow and retained heaps of the nodes:

Creative Suite 5.5 is live

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:41:02 PDT

We are officially announcing Creative Suite 5.5 today. We are also announcing new subscription pricing for customers who can’t afford the upfront cost of a full perpetual license.

Creative Suite 5.5 is the first such mid-cycle release and delivers important capabilities that helps:

To create mobile websites that can span desktops, tablets and smartphones with HTML5
To create and deploy rich mobile applications for Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS using Flash Builder and Flash Professional
To create, deploy and monetize digital publications (for magazine and corporate publishers) using InDesign and our Digital Publishing Suite
To leverage tablets in the creation workflow with the new Photoshop Extension SDK
To produce high quality videos more efficiently with the performance and productivity enhancements in Premiere Pro and After Effects

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:36:55 PDT

Flash Builder 4.5 is now live http://www.adobe.com/products/flash-builder.html . This is a part of the announce process for Creative Suite 4.5.

This release encompasses some of the most sought after features in the development world,developer productivity improvements. Multi-platform mobile development for the web, desktop and mobile and of course, the optimized round tripping with Flash Catalyst that makes designer-developer work flow smooth!

Administrator privileges for data model workflow

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:44:50 PDT

Data model perspective will not be shown in Flash builder when the flash builder is directly stared not as an Administrator. Copy the fiber modeler plug-ins to dropins directory in ~\Program files\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4\dropins directory in Standalone version of Flash builder whereas for plug-in version of Flash builder, fiber modeler plug-ins has to be copied to ~\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4 Plug-in\eclipse-host-distro\plugin directory. To create an fml file using fiber data modeler workflow on Windows-7 and Windows-Vista run the Flash builder as Administrator to Data Model perspective to show up.

For more information about LCDS workflow, visit http://sujitreddyg.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/tutorial-on-model-driven-development-using-flash-builder-4-and-livecycle-ds-3/

Flash builder 4 and Flex SDK 4 are released for public

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:00:39 PDT

We have released Flex SDK 4 and Flash builder 4 for public today.

The new Flex SDK 4 contains new Spark component and skinning architecture beside Flex compiler performance improvements and it supports the new runtime capabilities of Flash player 10.

Flash builder 4 contains data centric development feature which allows developers to connect to back end data servers and develop the end to end complete application. To improve the designer-developer workflow capabilities, Flash builder 4 seamlessly integrates with Flash catalyst and Flash Professional tools. Besides Data centric application development workflow, and Designer-Developer integration workflows, various developer productivity features have been provided in Flash builder 4.

Other features in Flash builder 4 includes, Network monitor feature to debug the network calls between client and server. Flex Unit framework support inside the Flash builder, Automation support for AIR runtime. Enhancement in profiler feature for better object references view etc.

We recommend reading 'What’s new in Flash builder 4' and 'What’s new in Flex 4'

We are very much excited about the shipping of new product Flash builder 4. We will be very much pleased to receive any feedback on the product and the new features. We will be pleased to hear any new feature ideas, enhancements from you. You can post your new feature ideas and enhancement on Adobe Labs Ideas.

We are looking forward for your valuable feedback.

Flex DMV components are now open source

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:05:42 PDT

Flex DMV components (AdvancedDataGrid, OLAPDataGrid and Charts) which were priced features in Flex builder 3.0 are not free and open source.
These components are now integrated as part of the Flex SDK. You can download the latest SDK from http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4 So, you no longer need to have Flash builder professional license to use these features.

New 3.5 SDK available having a critical bug fix

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:40:38 PST

The Flex team has released an update to the 3.5 SDK that addresses an issue with the Flex-based AIR auto-update UI packaged within the SDK (SDK-24766). The refreshed build, SDK 3.5a, has only a few files modified in order to fix this issue and this change does not affect the signing and caching of the SDK 3.5 RSLs originally released in December.

We encourage all developers using SDK 3.5 to upgrade their build to SDK 3.5a to continue their development. The SDK 3.5a can be found in the Latest Milestone Release Build table here: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+3.

Runtime exception when accessing the swf outside Flash builder which is network monitor enabled

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:00:01 PST

When the swf is compiled with network monitor enabled accessing swf outside Flash builder through a server URL throws security error. For using the swf from outside Flash builder. User should disable the network monitor and open the swf file if it required accessing the swf file outside the flash builder.

When the application is compiled with network monitor enabled, swf will try to connect to localhost network monitor debugger threads. This causes the runtime exception to be thrown.

Ideal way would be to have release build for the application for outside access.

Flash builder profiler : Improved object references view

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:45:38 PST

In Flex builder 3, Profiler used to show all the back references to the object which is live in the memory.

Showing all the back references will not be much useful for the developers debugging their application. It will be difficult for the developer to identify why the object is still being there in the memory. Since developer has to trace back the complete path for the object.

In Flash builder 4, for profiler feature an enhancement has been made to improve object references view. In the new object references view now only 10 shortest paths to GC root are shown. This helps developers to easily identify why the object under observation is still there in the memory. Since it shows the shortest path, it is very helpful for the developer to identify why the object is still in the memory by tracing the reference to the object by the shortest path. If the object is marked as a GC root, that particular object cannot be cleaned from the memory since it still has a reference. So, now developer can debug his application and identify why that particular object is still in the memory.

Although only 10 shortest paths to GC root are shown by default, developer can edit the number of paths to GC root to be shown in the filter provided in the memory snapshot panel and loitering object panel. The developer can customize the number of paths to be shown for any of the objects or he can view all the back references by selecting the check box in the filter dialog.

Flash Builder : Debugging secured HTTP Service call requests

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:30:22 PST

In Flash builder 4, Network Monitor feature supports monitoring network calls of secured HTTPService calls made out of Flex application.
There are two kinds of secured servers.

1. Secured servers with Self signed certificates
2. Secured servers with CA signed certificates (Eg. Verizon)

For the Flex application which connects to secured servers certified by CA, Network monitor bypasses the security checks and network calls will be recorded. But for secured servers which is having self signed certificate Network monitor will throw a SSL warning dialog alerting the user as "Network Monitor could not connect to the server due to self-signed certificate. Please select Ignore SSL security checks under Preferences to disallow certificate checks."

Note that all the HTTP Service calls which are made to secured server with self-signed certificate will fail.

To bypass the security checks and to monitor the network calls using Network Monitor feature in Flash builder, In Flash builder, goto Window->Preferences->Flash Builder -> Network Monitor. Select the check box 'Ignore SSL security checks'. This requires relaunching the application freshly. So, make sure that you close the application and relaunch the application.

Once you select the check box 'Ignore SSL security checks' you will be able to monitor network calls made out of Flex application to any secured servers using HTTPService.

Now, when the application is launched using Run/Debug mode, it will open up a warning dialog 'No SSL checks warning' as "Ignoring SSL security checks. If you want to allow certificate checks, then unselect "Ignore SSL security checks" under Preferences." This warning is just to notify the developer that he is bypassing the security checks. This warning will be thrown for both the network calls made to CA/Self signed secured servers. By closing the warning dialog developer can debug his application for network calls made to secured server using HTTPService.

Flash Builder 4 - Network Monitor

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:40:00 PST

Network Monitor feature in Adobe Flash Builder 4 enables developers to analyze the networks calls made by Flex application to back end data servers. Network monitor helps developers to analyze the performance of network calls and debug application when the response from the server is retrieved. This feature does not record all the network calls made by Flash player. Network calls made by Flex application running on Flash player or using AIR runtime can be recorded in Network monitor. Network monitor supports HTTP, SOAP and AMF protocols so it can record the network calls made using HTTP Service, Web Service, Remote Service, Data Service and Messaging Services. It also supports HTTPS network calls made out of Flex application.

Network monitor shows the necessary information required for the developer to debug his application making network calls by providing some of the very useful information such as URL, the type of service, Request time, Response Time, Elapsed time and the operation. Selecting the record will show the Request and Response data of the network call. The Request will contain the Request Header and Request body along with other information such as Request Status, ID, Parameters sent, header size and the body size. Response will contain the Response Header and the response body along with other information such as Response Status, ID, header size and the body size. Response body will also contain the type of data retried form the server. It could be XML, JSON or an AMF type of data.

Network monitor allows developer to switch between Tree View, Raw View and Hex View. Tree View shows the Request and Response body in a neat tree structure format. It will be easy for developers to view the data from sent or received where as in raw view, raw data transferred when request or response is made. Hex View shows the request and response data in the Hexadecimal values. This is particularly useful while debugging the application which transfers binary data over the network.

Network monitor also provides support to save the network monitor data locally in a XML format. Developer can view the saved data in any of the XML editors or using the browser. Developers can suspend the network monitor calls when ever they do not want to record network calls they can resume network calls when ever they want to monitor network calls.

Source code correlation in Network Monitor will take the developer to the location in the source code where exactly the network call has been made when double clicked on any of the network call.

Requirements

In order use the Network monitor feature, you need to have flex application connecting to any of the back end data servers using HTTPService/WebService/RemoteService

Step 1

Enable network monitor from Network Monitor tab in Flash Builder. This will compile Flex application with the necessary library file (netmon.swc) which is required for compiling the Network Monitor. Once the network monitor is enabled, network monitor status shows a message a enabled network monitor for the current project.

Step 2

Run or Debug the application, when the application makes any of the network calls, Network Monitor will record the network calls. Observe that each network call will show some important information such as Status, URL, Request time, Response Time, Elapsed time and the operation are shown.

Step 3

Click on the Network Monitor record, In the Request tab, request header, request header and body size and request body information is shown along with Status and Request ID. In the Response tab, response header, response header and body size and response body is shown along with response status. Also the type of data received is shown in the body. The type of data received can be of XML, JSON or AMF. Select Raw view to view the actual data sent or received.

Step 4

Double click on the network record will take to the location where the network call has been made. This will help developer when the network call fails or if he has to fix the performance of this particular call, developer can easily navigate to the source code where exactly this call has been made and fix his code.

Limitations of Network Monitor
• Network Monitor does not support applications created using pure Action Script and Library projects
• Network Monitor does not support RTMP protocol such as streaming of video over network

Flex Builder Linux - Alpha 5

noreply@blogger.com (Allen Wu) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:52:46 PST

The alpha version of Flex builder linux will be available on labs.adobe.com on 24th September, 2009.

The currently avilable Flex builder linux which is alpha 4, will be expiring on 1st December 2009. The newly available Flex builder which is alpha 5, will be expiring on 31 December 2010.

To download Flex builder 3 for Linux from http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder_linux/

Release notes is available at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder_linux/releasenotes.html

Hope you will find this very valuable and provide the feedback as always...