UPDATE: Version 1.5b2 of the Trace Panel is available here!

UPDATE: I also coded a little helper app, that starts the Trace Panel "always-on-top" - more info here.

The archive consists of the updated panel as a standalone exe and the Dumper class file (inside the "src" folder). To make the Dumper class available to all your MXML applications extract it into the [YourInstallDir]\Flex\WEB-INF\flex\user_classes directory and leave the folder structure intact.

The Dumper class is a static class and provides five methods (four of them are just shortcuts actually) and three different log levels. The levels are 2 (or Dumper.INFO), 4 (Dumper.WARN) and 8 (Dumper.ERROR).

• de.richinternet.utils.Dumper.dump(message:Object, level:Number):Void
  takes the passed Object (any type) and routes it to the Flex Trace Panel, the 2nd paramter is optional and refers to the different log levels of the Dumper class (the default is Dumper.INFO)

• de.richinternet.utils.Dumper.trace(message:Object):Void
  takes the passed Object (any type) calls the Dump.dump() method with log level Dumper.INFO (2).

• de.richinternet.utils.Dumper.info(message:Object):Void
  takes the passed Object (any type) calls the Dump.dump() method with log level Dumper.INFO (2).

• de.richinternet.utils.Dumper.warn(message:Object):Void
  takes the passed Object (any type) calls the Dump.dump() method with log level Dumper.WARN (4).

• de.richinternet.utils.Dumper.error(message:Object):Void
  takes the passed Object (any type) calls the Dump.dump() method with log level Dumper.ERROR (8).

import de.richinternet.utils.Dumper;
   
   function traceTest() {
    Dumper.dump("a normal message");
    Dumper.info("also a normal message");
    Dumper.warn("oops, a warning message");
    Dumper.error("Houston we have a problem!");
    Dumper.dump("this is also an error!", Dumper.ERROR);
   }

Together with the updated Flex Trace Panel you are now able to filter the messages, if you select the "ERROR" radiobutton control for example only messages with a level of Dumper.WARN will be displayed. This is what it looks like if you run the above example with a filter setting of "ALL":

BTW: The filter does not work on the already displayes messages in the Panel but only on all future messages.

I also put an experimental method into the Dumper class called Dumper.setHook() that adds shortcut functions to the Application.application scope. After you called Dumper.setHook() the dump(), warn(), and error() functions are available directly in the application's main scope - the only thing you have to do is declaring the functions, otherwise the compiler will throw a warning.

Dirk.

However with this version I really miss the “clear” button (in 1.1) to clear the panels’ contents :-(

Any chance this could be resurrected? Becoming frustrating to always go File > Clear. Like the use of putting the other functions in menu though.

http://www.richinternet.de/blog/index.cfm?entry=8F0C9A56-D3C1-55A6-0EAE917D5A7E6D86

Dirk.

On compile, I'm getting the error "A file found in a source-path must have an externally visible definition. If a definition in the file is meant to be externally visible, please put the definition in a package." out of Dumper.as.

I installed to the root of the application, so I shouldn't be having any class path issues.

Any ideas? Thanks! -Carl

On compile, I'm getting the error "A file found in a source-path must have an externally visible definition. If a definition in the file is meant to be externally visible, please put the definition in a package." out of Dumper.as.

I installed to the root of the application, so I shouldn't be having any class path issues.

Any ideas? Thanks! -Carl