[Q] "Refreshing workspace" takes forever...

[CyanBlue]

I'm using Flash Builder 4 beta on Mac OSX 10.5...

What I am currently doing is to create SWC files out of FLA so that I can use the assets in FB... I have it so that the library path includes a directory that contains SWC files...

The problem is that FB says "Refreshing workspace" message whenever I update the directory with the new file... It does not really matter it is a new SWC file or TXT file... Sometimes it takes a couple of minutes and one time it took 15 minutes when I updated multiple SWC files in this directory... I can bite the bullet and take a couple minutes of spinning cursor, but I feel like to break something when it takes really really really long time... :(

Is it normal or is it happening because I am using beta product or is there any way to prevent this from happening???

Thanks...

[Peter Cowling]

Flex/Flash Builder is slow. But it is not, in my experience, 15 minutes worth of slow :)

I do not have a version of FB4 installed on a Mac, only on a laptop with XP. I have not had this issue, although perhaps 30 seconds sounds right for adding a swc.

I do not know of a way to prevent workspace refreshes (doubt that would be a good thing anyhow), or speed them up.

So I can only really say this should not be the norm, and that it sounds like something that would warrent an Adobe bug report.

In between this and the other problems you have reported, it sounds like there is also a general difference in the...readiness of the Mac version when compared to the PC counterpart. I have used seven different Gumbo sdk's across FB3 and FB4, and not had as bad a time of it as you seem to be having. (Mainly just the rpc swc missing from a couple of nightly builds, issues with getting modules to recompile, and some 'internal build failure' errors.)

[CyanBlue]

Hm... I don't have the new MBP, but it is reasonably fast one with 4G of RAM, so I don' think it is the problem with my computer, hopefully...

I don't mind filing a bug, but it could be really tricky to make it reproducable on any system cuz I don't want to provide any asset file that I am working at the moment... I'll try to create a sample project and see if it happens in it as well...

Thanks, Peter... ;)

[Peter Cowling]

Hm... I don't have the new MBP, but it is reasonably fast one with 4G of RAM, so I don' think it is the problem with my computer, hopefully...


Unless you have a whole load of other stuff on the go, that spec should be fine.

Thinking back, maybe this is part of the old problem you had. Could be that the workspace is corrupted and that the last solution (-clean on start up etc.) failed to deal with aspects. If I had had the number/scope of problems you have reported, I reckon I would be thinking in terms of a fresh install of FB4...

[CyanBlue]

That -clean solved the problem at the time, so I am hoping this is an isolated issue... I believe I have installed FB4 more then 3 times so far, but I sure will try that again as soon as I fix other issue which goes with the Flash component in an asset file that I generated SWF from which gives me #1034 error... Gosh, don't have have endless problems... :(

[wvxvw]

1034 occures often when you load content into isolated sandbox and then try to pass objects from that sandbox hoping they will match with the objects from another sandbox.
I.e. if you have, say, ScrollPane in the loading and loaded SWFs, but you load the SWF from URL that doesn't match the URL of the loading SWF, then you'll have 2 ScrollPanes, and you won't be able to coerce between them.
Usually, you would need to load the second SWF into the same domain as the loading SWF or into child domain of the loading SWF to resolve this issue, however, one funny thing I've found, sometimes, you can get away with just registering class alias for foregn classes (not sure this will work with classes that by definition are not serializable though), then parent domain will accept objects from child domain and convert them to their "relatives".

[CyanBlue]

Yeah... That sounds about right on what's happening... I'll have to deal with it after I am able to get the FB running though... Currently FB is only showing this Refresing workspace and simply get stuck there even after uninstall/install process... Jolly... I am very temped to use FlashDevelop at the moment... But I am on Mac... :(

[Peter Cowling]

Currently FB is only showing this Refresing workspace and simply get stuck there even after uninstall/install process

Is that is even if you force the fresh install to create a new workspace - by renaming the current/to-be-old one?

[CyanBlue]

I don't really have a concept of the workspace, so I am not sure what you are asking... But if I open up the AS project that I was working on in a newly installed FB4, and change the SWC in it from the Flash IDE, I do see that long long pause... :(

[Peter Cowling]

Okay, the workspace is your OS folder and files. If you rename it, before a new install, you get a new and should be uncorrupted workspace. I would do that and import the files this should make a difference - because at present, i think you just install only to receive a 'corrupted' workspace.

[sydd_hu]

I had the same problem too. It went away by creating a new workspace + project and manually adding all project files. (on winxp)

[wvxvw]

I think that is also a difference between FB3 and FB4. FB3 (installed as plugin) was asking me on each run if I'm sure that the folder I set for workspace is really a workspace I want to use :) FB4 doesn't ask me (or maybe I have just checked some checkbox in that dialog box, and now it's happy with my last choice)... :)
But there are many funny / strange things about FB... I think I've found that there is a start page in it only after a year I have occasionally used it... and that's after someone complained the links on the start page are broken :)

I generally set my workspace like so:
Say, I have a clean Apache installation
- then, I would have it in the htdocs\projects folder.
Say, I have XAMPP installation
- then, I'd put it into xampp\htdocs\projects.
IIS:
wwwroot\develop.
It makes it easier then to test stuff separately, without running Eclipse / VS.

[CyanBlue]

Nope... Copying a project directory and renaming it to another project directory does not help me at all to reduce the refresh time... Creating a new project does not help me either...

The project that I am working on has about 400+ files which is not that alot, I think... But it is just weird seeing it happening... :(

[Peter Cowling]

Nope... Copying a project directory and renaming it to another project directory does not help me at all to reduce the refresh time... Creating a new project does not help me either...

The project that I am working on has about 400+ files which is not that alot, I think... But it is just weird seeing it happening...

That, along with the other points made in this thread, are the things I know of.

400 files should not be too many.

The only other thing that generally affects performance is having more than one project open at a time. Not sure why that is (other than the obvious), but I heard it to be the case, and seems to be about right.

[CyanBlue]

What I have found out so far is that there are specific SWCs in my project that FB3 or FB4 refuse to understand... I used right click on the library item and export SWC to create a SWC file... I create a new SWC, have FB update the workspace which typically takes 3 minutes to see the change on one SWC file... Build the project and there are times when I don't see the error message and there are times when I do see the error message next time I build the project again... It happens both on FB3 and FB4... So, I guess it is the problem with the mechanism of exporting SWC from CS3... That's where my guess is...

If I update a bunch of the SWC files, I still have to wait 20+ minutes till the FB becomes reactive again... This also happens in FB3 and FB4... I totally don't get why it is happening... I am thinking FB doesn't like me at all... :(

One thing funny is that the same project directory imported in FB3/SDK3.4 creates more random error messages than when I import it into FB4/SDK4... I am having so much fun and so much trouble porting this Flash project into the Flex project... Jolly...

[Peter Cowling]

Whatever you do, do not drag and drop files in the Package Explorer view. It deleted all but one of them when I did this the other day.

I ended up decompiling my own .swf to get the code I had written in the last two hours! God knows where it had deleted the files to, because they were not in the recycle bin, and even a pretty much forensic class data recovery tool could not track them down.

Reminds me to post on that...

[CyanBlue]

Ouch!!! :(