Using Adobe Scout with Flash Builder

Adobe® Scout (formerly codenamed Project "Monocle") is the next-generation profiling tool for Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR. Adobe Scout lets you profile release applications on the desktop, on mobile applications, and in the browser.

Adobe Scout uses the Telemetry feature to help you profile your Flash content. Adobe Scout provides many of the advanced telemetry options that you can use while profiling your application. For example, the remote profiling feature in Adobe Scout lets you run the content to profile on a different computer or device than the computer that is running Adobe Scout.

To get started with Adobe Scout and learn more, see the following:

Difference between Adobe Scout and the Flash Builder profiler

To use the Flash Builder profiler, you need a debugger version of Flash Player. The Flash Builder profiler lets you identify performance bottlenecks and memory leaks at an ActionScript-level inside the debugger version of Flash player.

Adobe Scout is based on the Telemetry feature, which runs on the release version of Flash Player. Telemetry works inside the internals of the Flash runtime, beyond the ActionScript level, and sends data to Adobe Scout. Adobe Scout then parses the data and displays it clearly and concisely.

You do not need the debugger version of Flash Player to use Adobe Scout; you can profile your content even in a release version of the build. This feature is especially helpful in tracking down a memory leak or fine-tuning the performance of a released application.

    Configure Adobe Scout with Flash Builder

    Before you configure Adobe Scout with Flash Builder, ensure that you’ve installed:

    • Flash Player 11.3 or a higher version (stand-alone or plug-in) and Adobe AIR 3.3 or a higher version

    • Adobe Scout

    To enable Telemetry in Flash Player and Adobe AIR, you edit the Flash Player Configuration file (telemetry.cfg).

    For more information on installing Adobe Scout and editing the configuration file, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_telemetry_en.

    Enable advanced Telemetry in Flash Builder

    Important: The advanced telemetry options are available only for ActionScript projects and ActionScript Mobile projects that use the ActionScript Compiler 2.0 (ASC 2.0).
    You can enable advanced telemetry while debugging or testing your application.

    To use the advanced telemetry features in Flash Builder, follow these steps:

    1. In the Project Properties dialog of your ActionScript project, select ActionScript Compiler.

    2. Under Telemetry Options, select Enable Detailed Telemetry.

    When you select this option, Flash Builder adds the -advanced-telemetry argument to the compiler and updates the compiler settings.

    Protect advanced telemetry data for a released application

    You can protect your advanced telemetry data by using a password, if necessary. When you export a release version of your application, you can specify a password to ensure authenticated access to your telemetry data.

    You can specify a password by following these steps:

    1. In the Export Release Build wizard, ensure that Enable Detailed Telemetry is selected.

    2. Enter a password, and confirm it.
      Note: The password is applicable only for the current session. If you change the password, you need to recompile the SWF file.

    Turn off -sampler value for iOS applications

    Sampler is an important feature in advanced telemetry. Once you enable advanced telemetry for your project, the -sampler parameter value is set by default.

    For iOS applications, turning on the -sampler option can cause the application to have some performance issues. If you do not want to connect to Adobe Scout and view the telemetry data, Flash Builder lets you turn off the -sampler value.

    To turn off the -sampler value in Flash Builder, follow these steps:

    1. Click Customize Launch in the Run/Debug configurations dialog box or Export Release Build dialog box.

    2. In the Customize Launch Parameters dialog, click X next to the -sampler parameter name.

    3. Click OK. Under Modified Parameters, the value of the -sample parameter appears as <value not set>.