Specifications

CHAPTER 1
8
About debugging an application
Flex provides several tools that you use to debug your application, including the following:
AIR Debug Launcher (ADL) A command line version of the Adobe® AIR™ debugger that you can use outside of
Adobe® Flex™ Builder™.
Flash Player You can run Flex applications in two different versions of Adobe® Flash® Player: the standard version,
which the general public uses, and the debugger version, which application developers use to debug their appli-
cations during the development process.
Flex Builder visual debugger The Flex Builder debugger allows you to run and debug applications. You can use
the debugger to set and manage breakpoints; control application execution by suspending, resuming, and termi-
nating the application; step into and over the code; watch variables; evaluate expressions; and so on.
Flex Command-line debugger A command line version of the debugger that you can use outside of Flex Builder.
For more information, see “Using the Command-Line Debugger” on page 245.
About testing an application
Due to the size, complexity, and large amounts of data handled by applications, maintaining the quality of a large
software application can be difficult. To help with this task, you can use automated testing tools that test and
validate application behavior without human intervention.
The Flex Automation Package provides developers with the ability to create Flex applications that use the
Automation API. You can use this API to create automation agents or to ensure that your applications are ready
for testing. In addition, the Flex Automation Package includes support for Mercury QuickTest Professional (QTP)
automation tool. for more information, see “Creating Applications for Testing” on page 356.
Deploy phase
When you deploy your application, you make it available to customers. Typically, you deploy the application as a
SWF file on a web server so that users can access it by using an HTTP request to the SWF file.
When you deploy the application’s SWF file, you must also deploy all of the assets required by the application. For
example, if the application requires access to video or image files, or to XML data files, you must make sure to
deploy those assets as well. If the application uses an RSL, you must also deploy the RSL.
Deploying assets may not necessarily be as simple as copying the assets to a location on your web server. Flash
Player has built-in security features that controls the access of application assets at run time.
This section contains an overview of the deployment phase. For more information, see “Deploying Flex Applica-
tions” on page 299.