You all may know the following conversations:

• “Somehow I can’t see the Flash-File” – “Which Flash-Version do you’ve got?”
• “The Loading-Bar takes ages” – “Your bandwidth is driven by a hamster?”
• “I can’t see the changes you’ve made” – “Press Ctrl+F5″
• “The image is missing, isn’t it?” – “Hmm, let me see.”

These questions often appear when customers call to tell me something doesn’t work properly. To avoid each of these topics I had a look for plugins to double- and triplecheck my Flashfiles before sending them. Here are my favourites to prevent worst-case-scenarios.

Firebug:
Firebug is a plugin which should be installed by any user using Firefox. It gives you detailed information about any file-request a website or swf does. It supports POST/REQUEST headers, loading-time, path-resolving and the like. With this plugin you can easily check if every file you’re loading is available and you didn’t mess up with any paths, as Firebug shows you which file you’re trying to load. Besides it offers a lot of javascript/css/html-features I don’t want to explain in detail. I think everyone developing in web already has this plugin but well, …

Get it here: Firebug – Web Development Evolved

Firefox Throttle:
This one’s allowing you to change your connection-speed. It simulates you a bandwidth, DSL Lite e.g. which is pretty handy when simulating download-speeds for “normal” users. I often had the problem that my preloaders can’t be tested well as it was just too fast with 100mbit. So I throttle my bandwidth and refresh. And there you go, back to the 90s with DSL Lite waiting for a flashmovie to be loaded :) What makes this plugin even more essential is the possibility to throttle localhosts as well so you can continue developing on your HDD and testing it with the different bandwidths.

Get it here: Firefox Throttle – Bandwidth utilization

Flash Switcher:
Although >90% are using FP10 already there are still some users which resisted the update-wave and keep surfing with FP9 or even 8. In many cases it’s a security-prevention in companies which disallow installing newer plugins. And as the IT-guy is currently busy with hacking competitors you have to ask for the version in your Flashmovies to prevent white-screens or even buggy applications. Flash Switcher allows you to easily switch between Flash Versions with one click and – even better – let you install different versions. I myself have the choice FP8, FP9, FP10, FP10 Debug and a FP10.1 which becomes pretty useful, as I don’t need the Debug player when just browsing.

Grab it: Flash Switcher

Cache Status:
I don’t think I need to mention that Flash and Firefox-Caching are one the most frustrating pairs ever in the internet. Sometimes it clears, sometimes it’s stored until you re-install Windows and sometimes even this doesn’t work. At least I’ve got the impression that every 2nd customer’s call is solved by saying “Clear your cache”. And didn’t you ever changed something in your code, republished, refreshed and wondered why the bug still appears? Then you change something again, republish, refresh, …what the heck. Oh. Cache. As I prefer light-weight plugins and don’t like the Webmaster’s Toolbar I’ve decided to use Cache Status. You can easily clean your RAM or HDD cache with one click – fast, small, effective and the best: It only clears your cache, nothing more – good call for Developers.

Take a look at: Cache Status

Powerflasher’s SOS max:
Last but not least my favourite tool for debugging live-applications in browsers. SOS max lets you see everything from traces up to customizable warnings, errors and infos. I think you better get an idea of yourself on their product-site. It’s really worth some minutes to read, download and configure. E.g. I finally know now that Youtube is using TweenLite as some traces by their player told me so :) I guess it was a bug or they’ve checked something out because now it doesn’t trace anything anymore, sigh.

Check yourself: SOS max – Socket Output Server

I hope some of you didn’t know all of the plugins and can go for better testing & debugging now. Cheers!