Testing Flash and Flex Applications with the Debug Version of Flash Player - Overview

Applies to TestComplete 15.10, last modified on December 15, 2021
Flash Player has reached end of life on December 31, 2020. Support for Flash and Flex applications is now deprecated in TestComplete and will be removed in a future release.

The information in this topic applies to web tests that locate web objects by using internal identification properties provided by TestComplete and run in local environments.

To make a Flash or Flex application testable for TestComplete, you can run it in the debug version of Flash Player with a helper module, FlashInjector.swf, preloaded. To access the application’s internals using the debug version of Flash Player, you do not need to include any extra libraries in your tested application or change the application code.

The following sections of this topic explain how you can use the debug version of Flash Player with the FlashInjector module preloaded to test Flash and Flex applications with TestComplete:

About the Debug Version of Flash Player and the FlashInjector Module

When testing your Flash or Flex application with the debug version of Flash Player, you need to preload the FlashInjector.swf module to make the SWF file of your Flash or Flex application testable.

The FlashInjector.swf module is a helper Flash movie, which makes your Flash and Flex applications accessible for TestComplete at run time, without any preparation actions with the application to be tested. FlashInjector.swf is included in the TestComplete package. By default, it is installed in the <TestComplete>\Open Apps\Flex folder.

Configure Flash Player to preload FlashInjector.swf before launching Flash and Flex applications (see Configuring Adobe Flash Player). The main advantage of using FlashInjector, as compared to other approaches to testing Flash and Flex applications, is that you need to configure Flash Player only once.

After you prepare Flash Player, you can run Flash and Flex applications and test them. You do not need to prepare your applications for testing in any way. This approach is the easiest way to make your Flash and Flex applications testable for TestComplete. It is useful when you are testing many Flash or Flex applications and do not want to configure your testing environment every time you need to test a new application build.

When you use this approach, TestComplete recognizes visual objects in the application and can access their public native methods and properties. For details, see Accessing Native Properties and Methods of Flash and Flex Objects.

Preparing Flash and Flex Applications for Testing with the Debug Version of Flash Player

To test Flash and Flex applications with the debug version of Flash Player, configure Flash Player and adjust the testing environment (configure the web browser, set security permissions and so on). To learn how to prepare your Flash or Flex application for testing, see —

Preparing Flash and Flex Applications for Testing with the Debug Version of Flash Player

Note: You need to configure the testing environment only once before testing your Flash and Flex applications.

Limitations on Testing with the Debug Version of Flash Player

There are restrictions on using the debug version of Flash Player. For the full list of restrictions, see —

Limitations on Testing with the Debug Version of Flash Player

See Also

Testing Flash and Flex Applications with the Debug Version of Flash Player
Accessing Native Properties and Methods of Flash and Flex Objects

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