Testing a Flash Document
Troubleshooting is a
skill you develop over time, but it’s easier to identify the cause of
problems if you test your movie frequently as you create content. If you
test after each step, you know which changes you made and therefore
what might have gone wrong. A good motto to remember is “Test early.
Test often.”
One
fast way to preview a movie is to choose Control > Test Movie >
in Flash Professional (Ctrl+Enter/Command+Return), as you’ve done in
earlier lessons. This command creates a SWF file in the same location as
your FLA file so you can play and preview the movie; it does not create
the HTML file or any other files necessary to play the movie from a Web
browser.
When you believe you’ve
completed your movie or a portion of the movie, take the time to make
sure all the pieces are in place and that they perform the way you
expect them to.
1. | Review
the storyboard for the project, if you have one, or other documents
that describe the purpose and requirements of the project. If such
documents do not exist, write a description of what you expect to see
when you view the movie. Include information about the length of the
animation, any buttons or links included in the movie, and what should
be visible as the movie progresses.
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2. | Using
the storyboard, project requirements, or your written description,
create a checklist that you can use to verify that the movie meets your
expectations.
Note
The
default behavior for your movie in the Test Movie mode is to loop. You
can make your SWF play differently in a browser by selecting different
publish settings or by adding
ActionScript to stop the Timeline.
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3. | Choose
Control > Test Movie > in Flash Professional. As the movie plays,
compare it with your checklist. Click buttons and links to ensure they
behave as expected. You should click on every possibility that a user
may encounter. This process is called QA, or quality assurance. In
larger projects, it may be referred to as beta testing.
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4. | Choose
File > Publish Preview > Default-(HTML) to export a SWF file and
an HTML file required to play in a browser and to preview the movie.
A browser opens, if one is not already open, and plays the final movie.
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5. | Upload
the two files (the SWF and HTML) to your own Web server and give your
colleagues or friends the Web site address so they can help you test the
movie. Ask them to run the movie on different computers with different
browsers to ensure that all the files are included and that the movie
meets the criteria on your checklist. Encourage testers to view the
movie as though they were its target audience.
If your project requires additional media, for example, FLV or F4V video
files, skin files for your video, or external SWF files that are
loaded, you must upload them along with your SWF and HTML file.
Note
You can also just choose
File > Publish (Shift+F12) to export the SWF file and the HTML file
without previewing the movie in a Web browser.
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6. | Make
changes and corrections as necessary to finalize the movie, upload the
revised files, and then test it again to ensure it meets your criteria.
The iterative process of testing and making revisions may not sound like
fun, but it is a critical part of launching a successful Flash project. |
Understanding the Bandwidth Profiler
You
can preview how your final project might behave under different
download environments by using the Bandwidth Profiler, a useful panel
that is available when you are in Test Movie mode.
View the Bandwidth Profiler
The
Bandwidth Profiler provides information such as the overall file size,
the total number of frames, the dimensions of the Stage, and how your
data is distributed throughout your frames. You can use the Bandwidth
Profiler to pinpoint where there are large amounts of data so you can
see where there may be pauses in the movie playback.
1. | Choose Control > Test Movie > in Flash Professional.
Flash exports a SWF and displays your movie in a new window.
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2. | Choose View > Bandwidth Profiler.
A new window appears above your movie. Basic information about your
movie is listed on the left side of the profiler. A timeline appears on
the right side of the profiler with gray bars representing the amount of
data in each frame. The higher the bars the more data is included.
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You can view the graph on the
right in two ways: as a Streaming Graph (View > Streaming Graph) or
as a Frame By Frame Graph (View > Frame By Frame Graph). The
Streaming Graph indicates how the movie downloads over the Web by
showing you how data streams from each frame, whereas the Frame By Frame
Graph simply indicates the amount of data in each frame. In Streaming
Graph mode, you can tell which frames will cause hang-ups during
playback by noting which bar exceeds the given Bandwidth setting.
Test download performance
You can set different download speeds and test the playback performance of your movie under those different conditions.
1. | While in Test Movie mode, choose View > Download Settings > DSL.
The DSL setting is a type of Internet connection and a measure of the
download speed that you want to test. It corresponds to 32.6 kilobytes
per second. Choose higher or lower speeds depending on your target
audience.
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2. | Choose View > Simulate Download.
Flash simulates playback over the Web at the given Bandwidth setting
(DSL). A green horizontal bar at the top of the window indicates which
frames have been downloaded, and the triangular playhead marks the
current frame that plays. Notice that there is a slight delay at frame 1
while the data downloads. Anytime a gray data bar exceeds the red
horizontal line (the one marked 1.1 KB), there will be a slight delay in
the playback of your movie.
Once sufficient data has downloaded, the movie plays, though you may
still see some pauses when the playhead catches up to the downloaded
portions.
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3. | Choose View > Download Settings > T1.
T1 is a much faster broadband connection than DSL, which simulates download speeds of 131.2 kilobytes per second.
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4. | Choose View > Simulate Download.
Flash simulates playback over the Web at the faster speed. Notice that
the delay at the beginning is very brief, and the movie plays almost
seamlessly as the movie downloads quick enough so the playhead never
catches up.
Note
The download speeds listed for
DSL, T1, and the other preset options represent Adobe’s estimate of
those standard Internet connections. You should determine the actual
speed of your Internet provider. You can customize the options and their
speeds by choosing View > Download Settings > Customize.
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5. | Close the preview window. |
