See trace() of Flash when running in browser

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/864155

Question

What's an easy way to see the trace() output of Flash/Flex movies when running in any browser?

Was it helpful?

Solution

Download and install the content debugger version of Flash Player.

Enable trace logging (official guide) by adding an mm.cfg file:

ErrorReportingEnable=1

    TraceOutputFileEnable=1

Where to save mm.cfg depends on the OS:

  • Mac OS X: /Library/Application Support/Macromedia
  • Windows: %HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH%
  • Linux: /home/user name

The log file, flashlog.txt, can be found at:

  • Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\Logs
  • Windows Vista: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\Logs
  • Mac OS X: /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/Logs/
  • Linux: /home/username/.macromedia/Flash_Player/Logs/

Optionally, you can install the Firefox add-on FBTracer which displays the trace output in a Firebug panel.

OTHER TIPS

i just use the console.log function (most recent browsers implement it);

import flash.external.ExternalInterface;

public static function log(msg:String, caller:Object = null):void{
        var str:String = "";
        if(caller){
            str = getQualifiedClassName(caller);
            str += ":: ";
        }
        str += msg;
        trace(str);
        if(ExternalInterface.available){
            ExternalInterface.call("console.log", str);
        }
    }

Check out De Monster's MonsterDebugger. You can debug track objects, traces, and display chains in a lovely AIR application. Very fun to use. And it's open source!

http://demonsterdebugger.com/

You can also configure Flash and Flex to write to a log file. Check out how to do that here:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=logging_04.html

I've been using Monster lately, but I used to have an alias that ran a unix "tail" on the flashlog file that would effectively give me a logging window for "in browser" tracing:

alias flashlog='tail -f /PATH/TO/flashlog.txt'

Or if you have a log viewer (like Console on Mac OS), you can view the log there. The only reason I suggest these options is that FlashTracer is pretty "crashy" ;)

Vizzy makes life easier if you want a basic logfile viewer. You just install the debug player and then install Vizzy. It is a window that tails the flashlog file. The sweet thing is that is does all the mm.cfg file b.s. for you.

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

Probably not as fancy as the others or cutting edge, but I used to create my own log function in the flash movie (funnily enough, called log) that called trace and also called a js function on the page (using whatever method your comfortable with). The function on the page was just a simple console.log() with Firebug. Simple and worked a treat.

I am a happy Thunderbolt user, maybe it is also worth a look (multiple log levels, plays nicely with firebug out of the box).

Since macromedia was aquired by adobe,I thought it should be 'D :\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Adobe\Flash Player\Logs\flashlog.txt '.Which resutlted in loss of few minutes for me.Finally i decide to give it a try to look at D:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\Logs\flashlog.txt and bingo i could see the flash trace() outputs.

I wonder why adobe is sill keeping the log file location in macromedia folder.Whatever it is I can see the trace ouptuts of flash applications run inside a browser and i am a happy man :)

In windows, If you use a localized version (i.e. spanish) of the operating system, 'Application Data' must be replaced with the localized version (i.e. "Datos de programa")

Unix's tail command works well for me:

tail -f ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/Logs/flashlog.txt

The -f switch keeps the log open and tails it via stdout into an open Terminal window. This is a Mac solution, I'm not sure what the Windows tail equivalent is.

Note that path is based on this document, posted above by @Jarvis.

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