FLASH CS3
User Guide
400
Debugging ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0
Debugging your ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0 scripts
The ActionScript 2.0 debugger helps you find ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0 errors while your SWF file runs in Flash
Player. When using Flash to debug ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0, you view your SWF files in the debugger version of Flash
Player, which is installed automatically with Flash. To install a stand-alone debugger version of Flash Player, run the
installer in the /
Flash installed directory
/Players/Debug/ directory.
The ActionScript 2.0 Debugger shows a hierarchical display list of movie clips currently loaded in Flash Player. Using
the ActionScript 2.0 Debugger, you can display and modify variable and property values as the SWF file plays, and
you can use breakpoints to stop the SWF file and step through ActionScript code line by line. You can then go back
to your scripts and edit them so that they produce the correct results.
A.
Display list
B.
Properties list
C.
Tool bar
D.
Code view
You can resize the regions of the Debugger panel. When your pointer changes between each region, drag to resize
the Display list, Watch list, and code view. You can also click the vertical bar to expand either side of the Debugger
to full size.
After it’s activated, the Debugger status bar displays the URL or local path of the file, tells whether the file is running
in the test environment or from a remote location, and shows a live view of the movie clip display list. When movie
clips are added to or removed from the file, the display list reflects the changes immediately.
Note:
The ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0 debuggers have significant differences. For more information about the ActionScript
3.0 debugger, see “Debugging ActionScript 3.0” on page 410.
The Test Movie command and keyboard controls
When you use the Control > Test Movie command to test SWF files that implement keyboard controls (tabbing,
keyboard shortcuts created using
Key.addListener()
, and so on), select Control > Disable Keyboard Shortcuts.
Selecting this option prevents the authoring environment from “grabbing” keystrokes, and lets them pass through to
the player. For example, in the authoring environment, U opens the Preferences dialog box. If your script
assigns U to an action that underlines text onscreen, when you use Test Movie, pressing U opens
the Preferences dialog box instead of running the action that underlines text. To let the U command pass
through to the player, you must select Control > Disable Keyboard Shortcuts.
C
D
A
B
