Vizzy Flash Tracer developer's tool

[ir73]

Hi everybody!

Would like to present you a new flash tracing and debugging tool called Vizzy
You can download it here.

http://code.google.com/p/flash-tracer/

Why use it and not some other trace tool (like Firefox tracer)?
Because:

* Multiplatform (Windows, Mac, Linux)
* Automatic updates
* Customize font and font size
* Automatically creates mm.cfg file
* Automatically detects flashlog.txt file location
* Comma separated filtering for multiple keywords support added
* Allows to set max limit of bytes loaded from the end of flashlog.txt
* and much more, full list of features (http://code.google.com/p/flash-tracer/)

Please write here your comments and what you would like to change/add there. If this sounds good, I will implement your request.

Regards,
ir73

[ir73]

nobody wants to try or nobody likes it?

[Cota]

Its probably being passed up because people are thinking its spam. Give it time.

[evride]

I don't really see the use of flash tracers. You directed that post more towards people who use other Flash trace tools. I think you'd do better if you explain how a flash tracer would benefit me, how it's used, and how it's different from tracing in flash or running the movie in the debug player.

[Cota]

You'd be suprised how many developers I've come across that dont know about the debug player..

[ir73]

Thanks for your replies, guys!

Both of you are right and I will explain why I use flash tracer. Probably, other users will find something useful in my explanations after reading this post.

So, basically, why use tracer instead of capturing trace in Flash IDE? First of all, there are lots of use cases when you cannot check everything in Flash IDE and you have to check that in browser. For instance, you call some javascript function from your swf? Or you want to check how your full screen works in IDE and not in browser? Or you load a file from the server and it works in Flash IDE but not in browser? Finally, you have some flashvars passed to your application but there are no flashvars in Flash IDE!

This means that to read your trace from browser, you need some tool.

Also, even if you debug somehow your swf and upload your swf into production, there might be the case when your client calls you and asks you to check swf on his environment and say why it's not working. So, you have nothing to do but to open your tracer and debug. :)

[evride]

You'd be suprised how many developers I've come across that dont know about the debug player..

Eh, I'm kinda one of those. Didn't use it until, and haven't used it since I needed to create an AIR application. I rarely use it otherwise, just to test internet paths with loaded content and cross scripting errors.

[RelaxGuy]

I'll try this out tonight, Flash Tracer doesn't play nice with the latest version of Firefox, so I hope this could be a solution. Thanks for your hard work!

[RelaxGuy]

Hey very nice work! I like it much better than Flash Tracer, and will be put through some use as I finish up my project. I'll let you know my findings.

[ir73]

Hey very nice work! I like it much better than Flash Tracer, and will be put through some use as I finish up my project. I'll let you know my findings.

Glad to hear that! If you have some feature request (or some annoying bug) just let me know!

[RelaxGuy]

I haven't found any bugs, although I did exceed the 50k limit and got the warning message. It has been HUGE in helping me debug my current project.

Only thing you need to do is add the V icon to Vizzy.bat instead of the default windows Application icon.

[ir73]

I haven't found any bugs, although I did exceed the 50k limit and got the warning message. It has been HUGE in helping me debug my current project.

Only thing you need to do is add the V icon to Vizzy.bat instead of the default windows Application icon.

Thanks,

Yes, this warning message was added as a feature some time ago to avoid annoying out-of-memory issue.

[ir73]

If someone's still interested, new version highlights search results beside the scroll bar, so you would get an impression how many search matches you got.

[despisedIcon]

finally a tracer i can use with chrome!
cheers ir73. will post bugs/feedback in this thread.

[ir73]

I have added DEBUG flash player detection feature (plus download links) to 1.25 version. This is not a critical update, but it would be useful for new users that have not set up their environment yet for debugging.

[ir73]

new version is released: you can now use Vizzy to read flash player policy file log too.

[unfunk]

Hi,

the vizzy tracer doesn't work on my system. win 7 professional. IE 8
debug player installed, mm.cfg file was created... do i have to do something else
than open the vizzy.exe while i have a flash-site running in IE8 ?

the trace window just continues empty, no matter what I do.

thx for any help!
Frank

[wvxvw]

Hi. there are some issues since Flash Player 10 latest versions, or maybe since 10.1. Now it locks the flashlog.txt file :( which means that the logging functionality is in part broken... (cannot clear the log messages, or it won't update properly).

[ir73]

Try shutting down Adobe SCS5 service manager as described Vizzy WIKI page in Troubleshooting comments. Vizzy does not lock anything, there should be some other issue.

Also, go to Vizzy settings and turn off Buffering. This causes sometimes Flash Player to behave strange.

[ir73]

Hi,

the vizzy tracer doesn't work on my system. win 7 professional. IE 8
debug player installed, mm.cfg file was created... do i have to do something else
than open the vizzy.exe while i have a flash-site running in IE8 ?

the trace window just continues empty, no matter what I do.

thx for any help!
Frank
go to settings and check that flashlog.txt file pointed there exists and has your trace content in it. If not, then delete mm.cfg, delete tracer.properties and run Vizzy again.

[Dima1736]

Hi to everybody

For those who are naysayers, I'd like to present a situation I found myself in where this tracer was very helpful. I have been working on a project where two servers are communicating through a firewall with one another to transfer data via SSH to the Flash movie embedded in a CMS delivered page. Neither IDE debugger was very helpful since they exist in a sterile local environment, often without access to server code to embed in a dynamically rendered page. This tool allows me to see traceouts without writing external interface code just to get them via JS (ala Firebug). Previously I had been using sephiroth's Flash Tracer FF add-on, but it was causing performance issues in the browser. This allows me to see these trace statements without the performance hit. Since I do alot of in-browser testing and work within CMS sites, this tool is very useful.

Thanks

[ir73]

I have just released a new version. Now all the search entries are stored and could be reused which is convenient if you search the same keywords often.

[Mitesh Sharma]

Its a very usfull utility. I am using a MTASE Compiler to compile my Applications.
And I have a saparate Designer Team to work on UI.

So in that case, i dont want to Purchase an extra licence of Flash IDE just to see trace outputs.

Its Work Well for me.
However i am getting an issue. I am trying to search 2 keyworks at the same time.
In the search box, I put it like this:
[ ABC, XYZ ]

But it dosnt work as i expected. its trying to search "ABC, XYZ" instead of "ABC" and "XYZ" in the output.

Please suggest.

[ir73]

Its a very usfull utility. I am using a MTASE Compiler to compile my Applications.
And I have a saparate Designer Team to work on UI.

So in that case, i dont want to Purchase an extra licence of Flash IDE just to see trace outputs.

Its Work Well for me.
However i am getting an issue. I am trying to search 2 keyworks at the same time.
In the search box, I put it like this:
[ ABC, XYZ ]

But it dosnt work as i expected. its trying to search "ABC, XYZ" instead of "ABC" and "XYZ" in the output.

Please suggest.

you should type "ABC,XYZ" (not that there should not be space after comma). Also check, that you have Filter check box ticked.

[ir73]

Let me share some news about Vizzy Flash Tracer as the new major version has been released!

The first thing I want to point out is that you can double click stack trace which will open you a source file in your AS editor. Also, moving the mouse over the stack trace will open a code pop-up showing you the code with buggy line highlighted.

Second cool feature is the possibility to make all your traces clickable! Double click on any trace line in Vizzy and you will get that file opened in your AS editor with a proper line highlighted. This thing requires some tiny code modifications, but this is worth of it: link VizzyTrace swc library to your project replace all your 'trace' calls with 'trc'.

Also, there is a native mac os x app so mac so mac users are welcomed!

I am here to answer your questions if you get stuck with something