Class: Sprout::FDBTask

The FDBTask provides a procedural rake front end to the FDB command line tool

Here is a decent tutorial on using FDB with SWF or HTML content: installingcats.wordpress.com/tag/adobe-flex/

You can send the fdb task some debug commands directly or simply execute the rake task and interact with the debugger manually.

The FDBTask requires that you have a debug Flash Player installed on your system as the default execution application for SWF files.

Following is an example of setting up a breakpoint in SomeFile at line 23

  fdb :debug do |t|
    t.file = 'bin/SomeProject-debug.swf'
    t.run
    t.break = 'SomeFile:23'
    t.continue
  end

You can also point the FDBTask at HTML pages. These pages will be launched in your default browser. You will need to manually install a debug Flash Player in that particular browser.

To use a browser instead of the desktop Flash Player, simply point the file argument at an HTML document or remote URL. The SWF file loaded must be compiled using the -debug flag, and executed in a debug Flash Player in order to connect to properly connect to the debugger.

  fdb :debug do |t|
    t.file = 'bin/SomeProject-debug.html'
    t.run
    t.continue
  end

.h3 Continuous Integration

The FDBTask is also the only effective way to execute SWF content in front of a CI (continuous integration) tool like Cruise Control. The biggest problem facing SWF execution for CI is uncaught runtime exceptions. The debug Flash Player throws uncaught exceptions up to the operating system GUI layer where a user must manually dismiss a dialog. In addition to blocking the CI process indefinitely, these messages are also difficult to capture and log.

Using Sprouts and the FDBTask, we can capture these messages along with additonal information (e.g. local variables and a complete stack trace) about the state of the SWF file, and then cleanly exit the Flash Player and log this information.

The FDBTask has also been configured to work with the ASUnit XMLPrinter so that an XML artifact is created and written to disk that includes the results of running your test suites.

To use FDB with a CI tool do the following:

1) Create a new base runner class (we usually name this XMLRunner.as) and make it look like the following:

  package {
    import asunit.textui.TestRunner;
    import asunit.textui.XMLResultPrinter;

    public class XMLRunner extends TestRunner {

      public function XMLRunner() {
        setPrinter(new XMLResultPrinter());
        start(AllTests, null, TestRunner.SHOW_TRACE);
      }
    }
  }

2) Create a new MXMLCTask to compile the newly created runner. NOTE: Be sure you set debug to true, otherwise the SWF will not connect to the debugger properly.

  library :asunit3

  desc 'Compile the CI SWF'
  mxmlc 'bin/XMLRunner.swf' => :asunit3 do |t|
    t.input = 'src/XMLRunner.as'
    t.debug = true
    t.source_path << 'test'
    # Add additional configuration here.
  end

3) Create a new FDBTask and set kill_on_fault to true.

  desc 'Execute the test harness for CI'
  fdb :cruise do |t|
    t.kill_on_fault = true
    t.file = 'bin/XMLRunner.swf'
    t.run
    t.continue
  end

4) Configure your CI task to call:

  rake cruise

5) That‘s it!

Methods

break bt c cf clear= commands= condition= continue delete directory= disable disassemble display= e enable file= finish handle home info info_arguments info_breakpoints info_display info_files info_functions= info_handle info_locals info_scopechain info_sources info_stack info_swfs info_targets info_variables input= kill kill_on_fault? list next print= pwd quit run set= sleep_until source= step terminate test_result_closing test_result_file test_result_prelude undisplay validate_swf viewswf what= where

Constants

 '<XMLResultPrinter>'
 '</XMLResultPrinter>'
 'AsUnitResults.xml'

Attributes

kill_on_fault	[W]	Boolean value that tells fdb whether or not it should automatically shut down when an exception is encountered. This feature is used to prevent GUI prompts for unhandled exceptions, especially when running a test harness under a continuous integration tool - like cruise control. If an exception is encountered, fdb will automatically print the exception, a full stack trace and all local variables in the function where the failure occured.
test_result_closing	[W]	String that indicates the closing of printable test results Default value is ’</XMLResultPrinter>’ See test_result_prelude for more info.
test_result_file	[W]	Relative or absolute path to where unit test results should be written to disk. This field can be used in conjunction with the AsUnit XMLResultPrinter which will trace out JUnit style XML test results. By telling fdb where to write those test results, it will scan the trace output stream looking for `test_result_prelude`, and `test_result_closing`. Once the closing is encountered, the prelude and closing (and everything in between) will be written to disk in the file identified by `test_result_file`, and fdb will be closed down.
test_result_prelude	[W]	String that indicates the beginning of printable test results Default value is ’<XMLResultPrinter>’

Public Instance methods

break(=(point))

Set breakpoint at specified line or function