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1113

answers:

8

Is there a tool/setting with the help of which I can track or debug flash applications running in a browser? Example apps: A multiple file uploader, or a .flv video player.

Updated: Just found out that flash apps may be using protocols other than http, for eg. rtmp. The feature I require is to keep track of all communication with any remote server. (Remember the net tab of Firebug?)

Any suggestions?

UPDATE: Flash is essentially a different user agent, so firebug and tamperdata both cannot track the http communication.

UPDATE 2: Fiddler looks perfect for Windows. Any *nix alternative? Thanks!

UPDATE 3: Considering debugger version of flash player at http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

+1  A: 

You could try Kap Inspect. It doesn't look like firebug but it will let you inspect elements. There's no debugger as far as I'm aware but you can see data bindings. There's no net tab equivalent but you could run your movie in firefox and use either firebug or Tamper Data.

slashnick
A: 

The solution is Firebug Lite, a JavaScript file you can insert into your pages to simulate some Firebug features in browsers that are not named "Firefox".

Catch it here. It that what you were looking for ?

Clement Herreman
+1  A: 

One solution would be to monitor your network directly with a tool like WireShark.

Brian
+5  A: 

If you want to see HTTP communication, I recommend Fiddler.

svinto
Fiddler runs on Windows, but you can monitor traffic from any other PC. http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler/help/hookup.asp#Q-NonWindows
EricLaw -MSFT-
Decided to go with Fiddler on Windows, and Wire-shark on Linux..
Swanand
+1  A: 

Try Charles- http://www.charlesproxy.com/ Charles is an HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP and SSL / HTTPS traffic between their machine and the Internet. This includes requests, responses and the HTTP headers (which contain the cookies and caching information).

TandemAdam
Yeah looks good..
Swanand
A: 

Firebug's net panel does normally log http requests made from flash. I've seen it do that, I don't know why it isn't working for you.

One general purpose debugging tool for flash that I find convenient is alcon. It's a logging tool that doesn't require the debug flash player and has some advanced log level and formatting support.

Another logging option is good old console.log to log directly to firebug or IE's console.

Joeri Sebrechts
+3  A: 

Burp is a Great java proxy and runs on all Java supported operating systems, In fact I like it more than the fiddler.

Leon
A: 

None of the listed tools hooks behind the Flash Player using socket communication (even if only HTTP protocol is used to port 80, as in as3httpclientlib), probably because they are not passing through the browser.

Does anyone know any tool that does? (of course ethereal/wireshark does, but it's too fine-grained, the full HTTP conversation is not rebuilt automatically)

saverio
Actually it seems that Flash itself cannot use system proxy settings. For me the solution is to set manually a proxy when creating HTTP requests in the app, to use any of Fiddler/Charles/etc HTTP proxies on localhost:8888.
saverio