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Chapter 11: Running and Debugging

Applications

When you test your applications in Adobe® Flex® Builder™, you run the application SWF files in a web browser or the

stand-alone Flash Player. If you encounter errors in your applications, you use the debugging tools to set and manage

breakpoints in your code; control application execution by suspending, resuming, and terminating the application;

step into and over the code statements, select critical variables to watch, and evaluate watch expressions while the

application runs.

To p ic s

About running and debugging applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Running your applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Managing launch configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Debugging your applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

About running and debugging applications

After your projects are built into applications (see “Building Projects” on page 121), you can run and debug them in

Flex Builder.

Use debugger version of Flash Player

To use the Flex Builder debugging feature, you must run the debugger version of Flash Player. This version is

available as a browser plug-in or ActiveX control, or as a stand-alone version. This is the version that is installed with

Flex Builder, but it is also available as a download from the Adobe web site.

The installers for the debugger version of Flash Player are located in the flex_builder_install/Player directory.

You can programmatically determine which version of Flash Player you are running by using the

Capabilities.isDebugger() method. For more information, see “Determining Flash Player version in Flex” on

page 167 in Building and Deploying Adobe Flex 3 Applications.

Use launch configurations to run and debug applications

A launch configuration defines the project name, main application file, and the path to the run and debug versions

of the application. Flex Builder contains a default Flex application launch configuration that is used to create launch

configurations automatically for each of your projects. For more information, see “Managing launch configurations”

on page 139.

Note: In the plug-in configuration of Flex Builder, a launch configuration is not automatically created for you. You need

to create one the first time you run your application. See

“Running your applications” on page 138.