Getting Runtime Trace and Debug Logs

Macromedia Flash can be so tedious to try to debug. You see, the problem is that Flash will silently swollow problems with your ActionScript. If you have a member that you are trying to access that doesn't exist, the Flash player is OK with that. It will just ignore your incompetance.

Also capturing any trace information at runtime can be difficult. You have to try dumping your traces to a text box or something like that which is a lot of extra work.

Thankfully, there is a way to capture this debugging information though.

To trace access to members that don't exist or to dump calls to the trace() function do the following:

• Close all browsers and anything else that might be using Flash.
  
  
• Uninstall the retail version of the Flash player. Use the utility from Macromadia here: http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14157
  
  
• Install the debug build of the Flash player. By default you can find it in:
  C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash8\Players\Debug
  
  
• Create a text file called mm.cfg inside the folder:
  C:\Documents and Settings
  
• Put the following in the text file:
  TraceOutputFileEnable=1
  ErrorReportingEnable=1
  MaxWarnings=0
  

A debug log file called flashlog.txt is generated in the same location as the mm.cfg file you created: C:\Documents and Settings\

Now just use Tail for Win32 to watch the flashlog.txt while you are testing your Flash movie. It will show changes made to the file in real time.