[osflash] Fatal error: exception Invalid_argument("String.create")
Today I experienced a curious MTASC error using ANT to compile from Eclipse. Here’s someone else’s description of the issue…
[osflash] Fatal error: exception Invalid_argument(“String.create”)
The only solution offered (create a new Project in Eclipse and go from there) didn’t work for me at all. After a little trial and error I found that the problem disappeared when I stopped using the (client supplied) input SWF and replaced it with my own ‘known good’ input SWF.
I’m not sure of the specifics, but the client supplied SWF was full of issues. Originally it wouldn’t compile due to library ‘duplicate linkage name’ issues, and the code (all internal to the FLA) was a spaghetti nightmare. It also took about 90 seconds to ‘Test Movie’ – in my experience it’s a prime example of ‘worst practice’ Flash development.
Anyhoo, things seem to be working OK now, so I’m migrating their content into my SWF piece by piece, but at least I can compile using my ANT scripts again.
Setting up Eclipse 3.3 Europa for FDT and Flex Builder 3
Windows XP installation:
Head on over to the Eclipse Europa installation guide site. I selected the option to customise Europa since I won’t be using any other languages and don’t need developer support for them.
After downloading the Eclipse Platform Runtime Binaries, unzip the ‘eclipse’ directory – I normally put this inside my workspace and commit it to a Subversion repository. This allows me to maintain a single stable development environment that can be easily deployed across multiple sites (or multiple staff) by simply ‘checking out’ from Subversion.
Run eclipse.exe, select a workspace location (I chose my current location, the one I’m already using with Eclipse 3.2). Once the IDE has started up choose ‘Help / Software Updates / Find and Install’ and select ‘Search for new features to install’ and click ‘Next’. I selected both available options (Europa Discovery Site and The Eclipse Project Updates’) and then chose the Europa options I wanted installed. At some point I also chose to ‘automatically select mirror location’ and bypassed the repetitive ‘choose a mirror location’ prompt.
Next I need to install Subclipse. Following the instructions is a snap.
Now it’s time to install FDT – again, the instructions here are a breeze.
Instructions on installing the Flex Builder 3 plugin for Eclipse 3.3 are here.
Follow these instructions for making ANT email from Eclipse.
While waiting for the Flex Builder plugin to download I’ve checked out my new Eclipse Europa installation using my current workspace. Everything seems to be compiling and running normally and the only item I still need to install is the ‘javahl’ task for svn (it allows me to copy files over the network, very handy for archiving and deployment).
Mac OSX 10.5 installation:
(coming soon)
FlashTracer update, now even more better!
Alessandro Crugnola’s FlashTracer extension for Firefox has been updated. The new version gives some extra help with locating your flashlog.txt file, and also some new log filtering options that allow you to set styles (colour, font, size) for log output containing your specified phrases.
I’ve already configured FDT to ‘systrace’ with the ‘INFO’:’ prefix on any trace outputs – this allows me to colour my ‘WARN’ and ‘ERROR’ traces accordingly.
For my money (that would be ‘zero dollars’) this is the best multi-purpose Flash log viewer out there. To get it, open Firefox, go to ‘Tools’, select ‘Add Ons’ and then search for ‘FlashTracer’.
Using Flex components in an FDT AS3 project without Flex Builder.
FDT is probably my most essential Actionscript development tool. I’ve just upgraded to FDT3 and found the following resources invaluable:
Complete starter guide for developing Flash projects using Eclipse/FDT
Beginners Guide to Getting Started with AS3 (Without Learning Flex)
To use the Flex component library in my AS3 project required one more step – making a basic mxml document that called my AS3 class upon Application initialisation. Here’s my mxml… . And here’s the AS3 application class (it creates a Button and a TextArea).
With these in place, compile the mxml to launch your application (I right-click on the mxml file and select ‘Run’). The SWF should launch with the grey ‘Flex background’ and create a Button and a TextArea component onscreen – No Flex Builder! 
Workspaces for agile teams and rapid application development | Assembla
I’m trying out a free Subversion/Trac online workspace. Assembla gives free space (up to 200MB) and online access to Trac and Subversion functionality – schweet! Workspaces for agile teams and rapid application development | Assembla
In under 10 minutes I set up a project site with Trac and Subversion, committed initial files, edited the Trac Wiki page and made a cup of coffee. All good in the ‘hood so far.
Although I’ve heard plenty of good reports about CVSDude their free offering is limited to 2MB. Maybe when I’m grown up I’ll have enough pocket money to pay for them, but for now Assembla seem to be suitable.
Confessions of a freeware junkie: Various XP tools: Microsoft 'Send To' PowerToys
It was Jennifer Haslam-James on the Signs Of Life project at Endemol in 2007 who turned me on to the joys of the ‘Send To’ powertoy. The original version was for WIndows 95, but the link below seems to cater for everything up to XP. There’s a comment on the page that it didn’t work on Vista. I’m sure I’ll find that out when I most need to!
The ONLY function I seem to use is ‘send to clipboard’, but as a multimedia developer with a constant need to:
- tell other people where to find files;
- refer to groups of files on network volumes; and
- update colleagues with new document locations,
… the SendTo powertoy simply rocks. Props to Jen, and props to the guy who made this link…
Confessions of a freeware junkie: Various XP tools: Microsoft PowerToys
Tracking down your Eclipse errors
I just read a useful tip on Andy Jarret’s blog... To read your Eclipse error logs from within Eclipse follow this path thru the menus…
1. Window >> Show View >> Other >> PDE Runtime >> Error Log
Here’s another extremely useful link for Actionscript developers using Eclipse/FDT/MTASC
I remember it came in handy when trying to track down something I thought was an ANT issue… We’d successfully automated our project deployment tasks for a large Flash project I’m working on but ANT seemed to stumble every time we tried to automate the compilation of our SWFs.
Everything seemed fine when we did manual builds using the ‘Run’ task in Eclipse, but transferring these to an ANT build failed, without any useful feedback other than a ‘Build Failed’ message in the Eclipse console. Our in-house Eclipse guru came to visit, with no success, but I learned some valuable Eclipse practices just watching him… the first was that double-clicking the tab for the active script editor expands the script window to fullscreen (essential when your employer won’t spring for dual-monitor developer workstations), and the ability to view the Eclipse error logs was the other one.
And despite Eclipse not being the final culprit, seeing that Eclipse wasn’t our problem pointed us in the right direction to track down the real issue. I wish I could remember the details, but we needed to look closely at our use of ‘header’, ‘-out’ and ‘-swf’ because somewhere in the command line we were issuing conflicting commands. The result was that we were outputting an empty SWF and MTASC was reporting success. Apparently the MTASC compiler will treat the ‘-swf’ parameter differently depending on the context it’s used in. In our case we needed to understand when we were creating our SWFs from scratch, and when we were injecting code into existing SWFs, and use the ‘-swf’ and -out’ parameters in the correct context… So we changed our ANT scripts accordingly and voila! Automated compilation AND deployment scripts, for everyone!
nil desperandum: Using Fiddler with Firefox
I’ve been using Charles as an HTTP proxy/debugger for over a year now. It’s a useful tool, but I confess I get mighty tired of the (almost weekly) updates and downloads. When we’re running it on 3 test machines, as well as 5 developer machines, it begins to get repetetively annoying to keep installing minor updates and bugfixes. Even so, Charles does give us bandwidth throttling, and Macintosh compatibility, and currently it’s hard to live without those when we need ‘em.
Today I came across a freeware tool called Fiddler (PC only folks, so Mac users can stick with Charles) that comes highly recommended by our Lead Tester here at Endemol.
Check it out folks – nil desperandum: Using Fiddler with Firefox
mentalaxis » Debugging with Flash Player 9,0,28,0
Windows-based Flash developers (especially working in a corporate environment with a roaming profile) will appreciate this comprehensive rundown on the new Flash Debug player from Jason Milkins.
mentalaxis » Debugging with Flash Player 9,0,28,0
NB – One difference between the old and new mm.cfg files that isn’t made abundantly clear is that the newer version should *not* include the ‘TraceOutPutFileName’ parameter. Since the player now looks in a fixed location for the logfile, if you change this parameter to anything but the correct location you won’t see your debug output.
Also, hard-won experience taught me that the mm.cfg file can live in different locations depending on your network and hardware environment. The 2 locations that I always try are:
- the root of your ‘home drive’ (if you’re a networked user), or;
- the root of your ‘Documents and Settings’ directory.
