FlashDevelop - Test Project setting "Open Document" stops working when saving project as XFL

Question

I'm working in FlashDevelop. I was able to set it up so that I can debug the application by specifying URL in Test Project setting "Open Document". It works, I'm able to press Play in FlashDevelop, it launches my application in a browser and I'm able to set break points, etc.

This feature stops working when I save the FLA project as XFL. When I press play, the application builds successfully but it does not launch in a browser. I get no errors or warnings in output.

update

Here is my set up. I have Flash Developer and Flash Professional open. When I press Play "debug" in Flash Developer, it kicks off a build in Flash Professional project.

Here is what's different if I try to open .FLA project vs when I have it open in .XFL:

If I open a project as .FLA (in Flash Pro), when the build completes, Flash Developer knows about it and executes a post build step of opening a document and attaching a debug session to it.

When I open the project as .XFL (in Flash Pro), when the build completes, Flash Developer doesn't do anything.

My guess there needs to be some communication coming from Flash Professional to Flash Develp saying "hey I'm done building, do whatever post build steps you have set up".

Answer 1

This seems to be a bug in FlashDevelop: http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?p=42109

I seem to remember seeing something like Flash not sending the "build complete" event, but I can't find the link, so don't hold me to it.

You could always try asking on twitter if the bug is fixed yet (@flashdevelop or @elsassph) :)

I'd recommend not using Flash to compile your project as it's more hassle than it's worth. Download the Flex SDK - http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Downloads - and just do it directly, it'll save you time. The more recent FlashDevelops can do this automatically when you install it, so it's pretty seamless

Answer 2

Well, first of all, I guess we are talking about XFL, not XLF :)

This is an uncompressed flash format that gives in output a bunch of files with xml declarations. The outputs has a following structure:

$ tree ./testing
./testing
├── DOMDocument.xml
├── LIBRARY
├── META-INF
│   └── metadata.xml
├── MobileSettings.xml
├── PublishSettings.xml
├── testing.xfl
└── bin
    └── SymDepend.cache

So, there is should be debug settings, huh? Let's look for them.

$ find ./testing | xargs grep -i 'debug'
./testing/PublishSettings.xml:    <DebuggingPermitted>0</DebuggingPermitted>
./testing/PublishSettings.xml:    <DebuggingPassword></DebuggingPassword>

So, I guess it's obvious now that we should try to set this option to 1 and try to start a debugging session!

P.S. I couldn't find any settings for this flag in Adobe Flash CS.