Thrust Interactive - Blog

RSLs on by default in Flex 4

Scott — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:20:05 +0000

I just wanted to post about this so I don’t forget. I noticed that every time I opened a swf created using the Flex4 SDK, I would get a bunch of errors:

Error #2032: Stream Error. URL: file:///C:/home/projects/blah/textLayout_1.1.0.604.swf
Failed to load RSL textLayout_1.1.0.604.swf
Failing over to RSL http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/swz/flex/4.1.0.16076/textLayout_1.1.0.604.swf
Warning: Ignoring ’secure’ attribute in policy file from http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/swz/crossdomain.xml. The ’secure’ attribute is only permitted in HTTPS and socket policy files. See http://www.adobe.com/go/strict_policy_files for details.
Error #2032: Stream Error. URL: file:///C:/home/projects/blah/osmf_flex.4.0.0.13495.swf
Failed to load RSL osmf_flex.4.0.0.13495.swf
Failing over to RSL http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/swz/flex/4.1.0.16076/osmf_flex.4.0.0.13495.swf
Error #2032: Stream Error. URL: file:///C:/home/projects/blah/framework_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failed to load RSL framework_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failing over to RSL http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/swz/flex/4.1.0.16076/framework_4.1.0.16076.swf
Error #2032: Stream Error. URL: file:///C:/home/projects/blah/spark_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failed to load RSL spark_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failing over to RSL http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/swz/flex/4.1.0.16076/spark_4.1.0.16076.swf
Error #2032: Stream Error. URL: file:///C:/home/projects/blah/sparkskins_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failed to load RSL sparkskins_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failing over to RSL http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/swz/flex/4.1.0.16076/sparkskins_4.1.0.16076.swf
Error #2032: Stream Error. URL: file:///C:/home/projects/blah/rpc_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failed to load RSL rpc_4.1.0.16076.swf
Failing over to RSL http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/swz/flex/4.1.0.16076/rpc_4.1.0.16076.swf

After doing a quick search, I found this post on RSLs on by default in Flex 4. Basically framework RSL’s are by default loaded by the swf file that is created when using the Flex4 SDK. This greatly reduces the file size of the swf file. If you were to turn it off by setting the following compiler argument:

-static-link-runtime-shared-libraries=true

Then the swf no longer tries to load those framework RSL’s and so you don’t see the errors. But the file size of the swf jumps up significantly. Just in a quick test I was working on, it jumped from about 86KB to about 593KB. That is very significant.

So if you are testing stuff out and don’t want to see those errors, then set the above argument to true. But if you are compiling a release version it’s probably best to have set to false to reduce file size.

SourceMate

Scott — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:37:13 +0000

I was checking out some of the features on the Flash Builder plug-in SourceMate. Many of the features already exist in FDT (no surprise). But SourceMate takes some of those features and does it a little better. And then there are some features in SourceMate which would be an awesome addition to FDT. I am curious if the release version of FDT 4 will have anything like some of the features in SourceMate.

I tried to see if it was compatible with FDT. But apparently you have to be using Flash Builder 4 The stuff which I think would be useful are:

Code Generation

* Improved Getter/Setter Generation
* Override/Implements Method Generation
* Generate Constructor From Fields
* Generate Constructor From Superclass
* Generate toString()
* Generate ASDoc Comments

Refactoring

* Extract Constant
* Extract Interface
* Extract Method
* Extract Variable
* Change Method Signature
* Convert Local Variable to Field

Metadata Features

* Metadata Content Assist
* Metadata Tag Validation
* Import/Export Tag Configuration

Code Templates (i.e. Code Snippets)

* Available via Content Assist and Templates View
* Works in Both MXML and AS Files
* Create Custom Templates
* Import, Export, and Share Templates

Miscellaneous

* Disable All trace() Statements
* ASDoc Generation Wizard
* Generate Ant build.xml from Project Settings
* TODO, FIXME, and XXX Task Markers
* Generate Event Handler in Actionscript

If the release version of FDT4 doesn’t get any of these new features, I may have to look into using Flash Builder with SourceMate to see which is the better IDE.

My new debugging tool

Scott — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:11:28 +0000

I’ve checked out Alcon before, but I’ve always been hesitant to use debugging tools which require you to use something other than trace. That is why I’ve always loved using SOSMax. Lately I have been working with Smartfox Server and it tends to spit out some funky xml traces when you have debug set to true on the SmartFoxClient. This unfortunately breaks SOSMax. So I ran across Alcon again today and figured I’d give it another try. It’s actually very nice little tool. It has some cool features beyond merely printing out the trace messages. Instead of trace, you use Debug.trace…..which isn’t that much more work. It’s easy to retro fit that into an existing project. I also use FDT so it is easy to create some templates for the different debug levels. If you want them you can get the templates I created.

Making AIR

Scott — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:44:31 +0000

So I wanted to delve into the world of making an AIR application. From what I have heard, it’s almost as easy as making a Flex application. But getting things set up wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. I spent quite some time searching around the internets trying to find answers to many problems I had. Fortunately someone on the Powerflasher forum was kind enough to help me out through some of the rough parts. Check out my post if you are having trouble setting up FDT to create an AIR application. You will have to jump through some hoops. Note that I am using FDT 4 M2 at the time of this writing. I am also using the HelloWorld example from this blog post (at the bottom of the page).

My Run Configuration for the project are as follows:

Main tab

Project : HelloWorld

AIR release file name : publish/HelloWorld.air

Application Descriptor

Application descriptor file : debug/settings/HellowWorld-app.xml

Certificate

Choose Certificate

Path : debug/settings/exampleCert.pfx

Certificate Password : examplePW

Assets

Include Directory

assets/icons

Include Files as

File : C:\home\projects\testing\HelloWorld\debug/HelloWorld.swf

Custom Event Template (FDT)

Scott — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:07:10 +0000

I had answered a forum post recently about a custom event template. It made me remember that I should use this since every time I create a custom class I always have to add the clone method and then add the event type constant(s). This template will take care of all that very easily. You can get the Event Template here.

Warning: Filter will not render

Scott — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:35:32 +0000

As I am working on a project for a client, I ran into this issue with some of the Flash animations that were provided to me by the client. When I run the animation, it is not visible and I get the warning:

Warning: Filter will not render. The DisplayObject’s filtered dimensions (10173045, 5890430) are too large to be drawn.

It says my dimensions are in the millions. I look throughout all the symbols in the animation. I don’t see any hidden duplicated display objects anywhere. I try removing all the filters in the animation, but it does no good. I still get the warning. So I decide to guide out the animations and stick a place holder in there for the time being until the issue could be resolved. I test it out and I see the place holder. So then I tried unguiding layers and testing. Now it works. So I try removing the place holder graphic…….it does not work. Very strange. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that the animation has empty keyframes.

So if you have this issue, try putting a place holder graphic that spans the entire animation. I don’t know why it works, but it does.

Embed in mass

Scott — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:08:17 +0000

Many of the projects I work on require a ton of embedded images. I will have dozens if not hundreds of images that need to be embedded. It’s a pain to write out all those embed tags and properties. Even if you copy and paste other embeds or if you use a code snippet/template, it’s a very tedious process. So I wrote up a jsfl script which will do it for me. This script allows you to specify a directory which contain your assets you want to embed, and it generates the embed code for all the assets in the directory. Then you just copy the code from the output panel and paste it into your project. It’s a big time saver.

generateembedfromdirectory

FlashBug

Scott — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:10:13 +0000

I’ve been using SOSMax for a long time. It is simple, easy to use, and does what I need it to do. But I ran across a blog on about FlashBug and I was immediately interested when he mentions that he lurvs SOSMax. So after checking out FlashBug, I think I am going to start using it for debugging. It has some neat features. I like that you can pretty print xml and html. The error and warning icons are nice too. You can check out loaded shared objects and their properties. Also there is a Policy Log tab which lets you check out what cross domain policy files are loaded. That is very nice since (as far as I know) there is not any way to tell if your cross domain xml loads successfully or not.

I use FDT for ActionScript editing so I’ve created a few simple templates for the specific trace filters you can use for FlashBug.

flashbug_templates

PerspectiveProjection + MouseEvent

Scott — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:10:24 +0000

I have been using the new 3D features of Flash 10 in a few projects recently. It’s been working great until I needed click on some of those object with 3D transformations on them. I had a bit of a hard time finding the right phase to search on to see if other people had the same problem as me. Finally after searching on PerspectiveProjection + MouseEvent, I found what I needed to see. There is already a Jira ticket for this issue, but it didn’t offer any good hints to a solution. After looking through a few links I found this thread on Adobe’s forum. Go to the third post and DJ Gecko says:

if you want mouse events you need to apply the rotation properties and PerspectiveProjection to different movie clips

I had the PerspectiveProjection on the same DisplayObject as I was setting my rotationX and z properties. I changed the transform to the parent and everything works exactly as planned now. That was quite frustrating.

Flex Formatter

Scott — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:37:31 +0000

I have recently started using an nifty utility called Flex Formatter. I saw a blog post about it on Grant Skinner’s blog. I was initially skeptical that it wouldn’t to much more than what the formatter in FDT is capable of. I was wrong. It does a lot more than the FDT formatter. Unfortunately I could not install the plugin the way which Grant described in this post (which is the normal way of installing plugins in Eclipse). Instead I had to download the jar files and stick them in the plug-ins folder for Eclipse. If you go Christophe Herreman’s blog, he provides a link to the jar files. Once you download them (there are 3 .jar files in the zip), move them into the plug-ins folder where you have your Eclipse installation. Once you restart Eclipse, you will see the Flex Formatter buttons at the top of Eclipse. Then you can go into preferences and start editing how you like to format your code.

It is quite powerful. It has a lot more features than the formatter that comes with FDT. One of the things I like is that it can rearrange all my methods and properties of my class (in ActionScript classes) so they are in alphabetical order. And it arranges them together by public, protected, internal, and private. It’s pretty sweet. It also formats your mxml files. This ability didn’t exist in Flex Builder or FDT.

But there is a downside. Flex Formatter is a bit frustrating sometimes. For some reason it doesn’t always work. Specifically on some of my custom ActionScript classes. When I try to format, it won’t do anything. I am using PureMVC in my projects and when I try to format any Mediator or Proxy classes that it does not want to work. So the work around I do is copy the code into a new class and format it, copy the formatted code, paste it back into my original class, and delete the new class. This is a pain, but it works. Has anyone else run into this problem?