If you’re working on a project that’s prone to timing out on you, and throwing those “A script has executed for longer than the default timeout period of 15 seconds” errors, here’s a quick tip for you until fix the bugs causing the timeout.

Just set the scriptTimeLimit attribute of your <mx:Application> tag to a smaller value, like 3 seconds. That way you won’t need to wait around for a while waiting for your app to crash so you can get back to debugging the problem. It’ll crash in about 3 seconds instead of 15, or even a full minute later.

Obviously, the ideal solution is to fix the bug causing the timeout, but while you’re debugging, this should help to ease the pain a little bit.

LiveDocs: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/mx/core/Application.html#scriptTimeLimit

I’ve been struggling with this problem for a while now, and while it’s kinda nice to see that it’s been filed as a bug, and not something I’m doing wrong, it’s still frustrating because I need this working asap.

Here’s the bug: http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-11246

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Sure, there are several places out there where you’ll find this information, but nothing really in an easy-to-print form you could hang on your cube wall.

This list is far from comprehensive, but it’s a list of the ones I use most often, and find the most useful. There’s a reason I made the first one on the list “View all Shortcuts”.

As I’m a Mac user, the shortcuts are for the Mac version of Flex Builder, but I would assume that you Windows folks can just use Ctrl instead of the Command key.

Here’s a nice PDF, ready for printing: FlexBuilderShortcuts_MAC.pdf

If there’s something you really feel strongly about me having left off of the list, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the list.

If you’re a Flex dev, and haven’t checked out FlexExamples, you need to.

Run by Peter deHaan, each day he posts several simple code examples ranging from skinning components to manipulating Strings. The great thing is that each example is fairly short, and to the point. No long-winded explanations, just a short explanation, followed by sample code.

How is Peter stalking me? For the last two weeks, it seems like every time I run into an issue with my code where I’m stumped, and am having problems finding a solution online, within about 15 minutes my RSS reader pops up with a new post from Peter, that contains the solution to my problem.

Seriously Peter, where are you hiding? My cube isn’t that big.

Though you’ve probably heard the news already, SCPlugin for OS X was recently updated to 0.7. This release is a big improvement over earlier versions of the plugin, and makes working with Subversion on the Mac much easier.

However, if you’re also using the Subclipse plugin with your FlexBuilder install, you may run into some problems after using SCPlugin. Specifically, I was receiving the following error:

Unsupported working copy format
	svn: This client is too old to work with working copy '/path/to/workingCopy/';
please get a newer Subversion client

To fix this, I simply went into FlexBuilder > Preferences > Team > SVN, and changed the SVN interface option to use SVNKit (Pure Java) instead. So, if you’re having a similar problem, then give it a try. May not fix your exact issue, but it’s at least worth a shot.

Thanks to Jack Repenning of the SCPlugin mailing list for helping me figure this out!

The global trace() function is probably the simplest, and most useful methods of debugging that ActionScript developers have. Usually, it's used to output the value of a variable or to broadcast out a little note that some event occurred. Most people use it something like this:

Well, now in AS 3.0, trace() has been modified to allow multiple parameters! What's so cool about that? Well...

Instead of this:

you can do this:

Or, simply output a list of variables all at once instead of using multiple trace() calls:

Not exactly earth shattering, but it's definitely a welcome addition to ActionScript.

Sure, it's from last year, but I just found it the other day, and I love it. David Zuckerman has compiled a short list of shortcut keys in Flex Builder 2 that you should check out if you work with Flex Builder.

It's by no means a comprehensive list, but there's some good stuff in there. The "Quick Outliner" has already saved me a bunch of time, and the "Organize Imports" feature is great as well.

Link: http://davidzuckerman.com/adobe/2006/10/27/flex-builder-editor-cheat-sheet/

Just received my Flex & AS 3 posters in the mail the other day. These things are awesome! I'm still trying to figure out how to hang them in my cube, so if you have any good ideas, let me know.

Also, a big thanks to the Flex team for sending me extra posters for our user group to give away in our raffles.

Based on the popularity of the Flex CS3-style icon I posted yesterday (200+ downloads just yesterday), I figured I'd upload the wallpaper I made featuring the logo as well.

The download includes the Fireworks source files for the icon, the wallpaper, and a 1920x1200 sized wallpaper image, that should be plenty big for your displays. This way, you can tweak the wallpaper to fit your display, as well as make a Windows icon if you like.

http://www.joshbuhler.com/downloads/FlexIconWallpaper.zip

Eric twitter'd earlier today about FlexBuilder needing a square icon. I'm not sure if this is what he meant, but I liked the idea, and whipped up a CS3-style icon using the Flex logo from the Wheel-o-icons on John Nack's blog.

Sure, the icon for FlexBuilder may really be the "FB", and not the "Fx", but I like the "Fx" more, so that's the one I made. I'll try to post an "FB" later.

This icon is for OS X only, and you'll need to use something like CandyBar, or some other way of changing your application icons.

Download: http://www.joshbuhler.com/downloads/FlexIcon.zip

I've also made a wallpaper based on the icon (nothing fancy - I'm not a designer), and have included the Fireworks source files for the icon if you'd like to produce a Windows version.

http://www.joshbuhler.com/2007/04/05/flex-icon-wallpaper-icon-source/