Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide

Trace Debugging

Trace debugging is sometimes the most useful way of debugging your applications, because it is quick to implement and offers immediate feedback. The Output window (a.k.a. trace window) in Flash’s authoring environment provides instant feedback when you test a movie. By simply adding a trace( ) statement to your movie, you are effectively adding debugging code.

In its simplest form, trace debugging involves tracing a value to the Output window:

trace(myVariable);

As you become more organized in your debugging and testing procedures, you will add more information so that the output is more readable and useful:

trace("myVariable: " + myVariable + " in function myFunction( )");

If your movie is complex and there are areas that demand constant debugging, you can put a debug flag in your script as a local variable and uncomment it when you want to debug:

// var myDebugFlag=true;
var myDebugFlag=false;

You can then sprinkle your code with trace( ) statements. This one simply tells you that a particular function, getSearchResult_Result( ), was reached without requiring you to set a breakpoint in the debugger to verify it:

if (myDebugFlag) trace("debugging getSearchResult_Result( )");

This technique works well for routines called so frequently that it would be impractical to use a breakpoint, which would repeatedly stop the movie in the debugger. On the other hand, if frequently called routines display too much trace information, it becomes difficult to find other information in ...