Category Archives: Debugging

Flash trace app for Mac OS X

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Download FlashTraceThe other day my FlashTracer (Firefox add-on) and my FBTracer (FireBug extension for Firefox) stopped working (again!). I’m so tired of these flash tracing tools doing this to me all the time and as an addition I’ve wanted a stand-alone tool for my flash trace for a while, so I can have the Flash trace and Safari windows visible at the same time, without the need for Firefox (or a massive debugging tool – I just want a simple trace output). That’s why this time I wrapped up a small Mac OS app that simply opens Terminal and shows the user the Flash trace output in a Terminal window.

This is no magical app, it still demands that the user has the DEBUG version of Flash player installed and that your flash trace text file is in this directory:
~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/Logs/flashlog.txt
(the ~ meaning your home directory in unix talk)

The app is downloadable below and is free for you to use. Note that I release the app with a GPL license and your are welcome to use, distribute and change it. You can open the app using the AppleScript Editor. I would love to hear if you make any useful additions to it but cannot provide any support, sorry.

Enjoy!

Download FlashTrace.app here

Firebug equivalent for Internet Explorer

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I guess I’m not the only one who’s been searching for an IE equivalent of Firebug. Being a Mac developer using Visual Studio simply to be able to debug my web sites in IE has never really been an option and the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar is too simple for my needs. I want to be able to debug JavaScript, not just CSS and HTML DOM. Long have I pulled my hair trying to find out why the h*ll something is working fine in Firefox/Safari but not in IE.

The other day I came across the DebugBar by the French Toulouse-based company Core Services. It’s excellent! Well, not as simple, clean and accurate as Firebug, but still way ahead of all the other debug solutions I have found for Internet Explorer. And it also has some good features that Firebug is missing.

Vive la France!

MySQL Sample Data Creator

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A year or two back I was in a real need of a lot of sample data for testing a web tool I was working on, so I wrapped up a small tool to generate sample data by defining a few parameters and choosing how many rows to add, using Flex 2 (or perhaps 1.5, don’t remember). Well today the need arose again, so I went through my old backup files and found it again. I thought I’d put it up on the web so as maybe someone else could be helped by it. I know it’s not perfect and only spent a few hours creating it, but if you have any suggestions on how to improve it please write a comment and let me know what you think. I would be glad to update it and eventually make it a really useful tool.

Go to the MySQL Sample Data Creator 1.0

FlashTracer Firefox plugin

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Update Jan 24 -09: The Flash Tracer that works with Firefox 3 has to be downloaded from the creator’s own site. The one at Mozilla Addons doesn’t work with 3.x (yet). In the instructions below I have therefore used the link to his own site.

If you’re developing for Flash/Flex the FlashTracer can be quite a nifty plugin. It lets you see the flash player trace output directly in a sidebar in you browser. Outputting debugging info is something I use all the time while developing and I have tried several times to get FlashTracer to work, but haven’t managed, so I usually have a textarea inside my flash/flex project with a custom debug output. I guess I have been too impatient before but today I sat down and read through some posts about it. This is how I eventually got it to work on my Mac:

1. Make sure you’re using the latest Flash Player Debug version. Download it here

2. Install the plugin (of course)

3. Open the FlashTracer sidebar in FireFox. Click the Preferences button.

4. Under the area named “Select output file” click browse and point the plugin to the flashlog.txt file your debug player outputs. In my case (being on a mac) it was here:
/Users/{username}/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/Logs/flashlog.txt

The plugin will ask if you want to replace the file, which is stupid because you will want to read from the file, not write to it, but that’s just how it is. Don’t let it scare’ya.

5. Save/close preferences.

6. Restart FireFox.

That should do it.