Best Tools for Debugging Flash ActionScript 3 (AS3)

Question

Does anyone want to share the best debugging tools they have found for Actionscript 3 (AS3) and Flash CS5?

I've just done a search and found a few, but would love to hear from people who've actually used any of them. (In order of 'most promising')

Adobe Scout - Adobe Scout is the next-generation profiling tool for Adobe Flash Player and AIR
De MonsterDebugger - open source AIR app that allows introspection and live tweaking
Thunderbold AS3 Console - AIR app that allows introspection of SWFs via Flash Debugger logfile
Arthropod - another AIR app that can inspect SWFs
Luminic Box Flash Inspector (example online, but can't seem to find source code)
DPanel - simple, built-in to but good features to do live tracking of variables
Alcon - looks to have some good timing and profiling features
Print_R Inspector - supports older FlashMX, not sure about AS3
Tracer - Better debugging in AS3 - enhanced trace() functions
Debugging AS3 with Firebug
Flash CS5 built-in debugger - works only on breakpoints, unable to track variables live without using trace()
Output panel from Senocular
Xray (The AdminTool) - AS1+AS2 only

Screenshots...

Adobe Scout:

_{(source: adobe.com)}

De MonsterDebugger:

_{(source: demonsterdebugger.com)}

Thunderbird AS3 Console:

_{(source: googlecode.com)}

Luminic Box:

http://img1.UploadScreenshot.com/images/main/2/4406392687.jpg

Senocular:

Xray:

_{(source: osflash.org)}

added scout - wasn't available at the this this was asked, but is pretty much the best tool for debugging today — Daniel, Dec 06 '13 at 22:38

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 15 '11 at 07:33

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Flashbuilder has almost everything I need. On top of that, I use JPAuclair's preload profiler , and an in-house developed equivalent to X-Ray.

answered Feb 15 '11 at 07:33

Roy

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+1 for FlashBuilder debugger, there is virtually no reason to use anything else, unless you have some very odd things happening with a deployed SWF. – ocodo Feb 15 '11 at 08:36

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 03 '12 at 08:26

SWFWire Debugger can:

Trace method calls
Trace object allocation
Graph frame rate
Graph memory usage
Edit properties
Visually select DisplayObjects similar to FireBug.

It's also open source, and requires no code modifications.

enter image description here

Disclaimer: I wrote this application

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 08 '19 at 22:34

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DeMonsterDebugger.com has a lot of features (their site describes it best).

Tracing messages
Introspection of your application structure
Testing methods
Editing properties
Finding performance issues

And open source! :-)

_{(source: demonsterdebugger.com)}

edited Aug 08 '19 at 22:34

Glorfindel

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answered Feb 14 '11 at 13:41

alxx

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I just found DeMonsterDebugger today and it looks really interesting, however I noticed it's license is GPLv3. Given that you have to compile a SWC into your project, does that mean all my code is infected by the license? – novwhisky May 01 '14 at 21:43
I guess you don't have to link release version with debugger. – alxx May 13 '14 at 10:45

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 16:12

Adobe Scout

Adobe Scout is the next-generation profiling tool for Adobe Flash Player and AIR. It revolutionizes ActionScript development by showing you what's going on inside your content, in mouth-watering detail. Scout is simple and intuitive to use, freeing your mind to create sleek and immersive games!

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 12 '13 at 05:16

Adobe Scout, the official debugger by Adobe

Copied from official web site

Works with any SWF

Use Scout to profile and optimize any SWF whether it runs on mobile devices, desktops, or in browsers. And you don't need special debug versions - profile your games in the commercially available Flash Player.

No code changes

Scout works automatically, without any changes in your code. Profile your content in-context with very little effort, find hotspots in no-time.

Project lifecycle use

Scout helps you early in development by detecting problems before you do. Then use the same sophisticated analysis tools on production systems after your game is released.

Mobile profiling? Yes!

enter image description here

A video introduction is available on youtube

I haven't used Scout, but it looks more like a profiling/performance-tuning tool than a debugger. Would that be true? Like does it have a console and code-step-through facilities? — Simon East, Dec 08 '13 at 23:21

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 27 '11 at 15:31

3

I use Flex Builder 3, and it has everything that I need in it. Great tool for stepping through code.

Another tool that seems to be catching on is De MonsterDebugger. I have not used it extensively as Flash Builder does what I need, but it is pretty slick of you don't have access to the Adobe tools. One cool feature it has that the Flash Builder one doesn't is live editing.

enter image description here

answered Feb 27 '11 at 15:31

Scott

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Yeah looks good. Thanks for the tip (and the screenshot) Scott! – Simon East Feb 28 '11 at 07:15

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 23 '11 at 23:53

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Personally I like to use Amethyst... http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Products/amethyst-ide/Amethyst-Product-Page

answered Mar 23 '11 at 23:53

Jason King

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Is Amethyst more like a full Flex IDE? – Simon East Apr 07 '11 at 04:23
Amethyst is a language plugin for Visual Studio (but you can use the free version of Visual Studio). Besides integrating directly into the Visual Studio debugger, it also provides an array of flash and flex source editing integrations. – Jason King Apr 11 '11 at 15:05
It's 5 years since that post, and I tried to find something that could do live debugging of actionscript in swf running live on a web page. So far I don't see anything from adobe that could do that, Flash Builder is complete joke. I just tried Amethyst and within an hour I was debugging live AS3 code! Too bad it seems to be somewhat abandoned now, but it looks great imo. It would be super cool it it allowed to debug js as well, so that I could see stack traces of js/actions script calling each other. – Pavel P Aug 19 '16 at 02:11

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 07 '11 at 05:22

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I use Alcon.

It has tracing and monitoring capabilities. Just import the package and use Debug.trace(anything).

I think it's good enough. =)

http://osflash.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?hash=9eff22&media=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.hexagonstar.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Falcon3_view1.jpg

edited Apr 07 '11 at 05:22

Simon East

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answered Feb 14 '11 at 19:14

paulochf

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 07 '12 at 05:25

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This is quite an old post. But don't forget to try out FlashFirebug FireFox extension for Flash Debugging:

http://www.o-minds.com/products/flashfirebug

answered Jan 07 '12 at 05:25

Ashraf Amayreh

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 05:12

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there is the Miner...

it seems pretty powerful

http://www.sociodox.com/theminer/

answered Feb 02 '12 at 05:12

Daniel

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered May 22 '12 at 21:36

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Tr.ace() is library that allows you to restrict traces to certain users or classes as well as output all the traces to a textfield or save them out to a log file...

http://msfx.co.uk/2012/01/17/introducing-tr-ace-an-as3-open-source-debugging-library/

answered May 22 '12 at 21:36

MSFX Matt Stuttard Parker

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Best Tools for Debugging Flash ActionScript 3 (AS3)

Screenshots...

11 Answers11