Flash CS5 code hinting not working?

[Guest]

Just installed the new Flash CS5 trial and code hinting doesn't appear to be working! I have added all my custom class paths in to the AS3 source paths, but I don't get any code hinting for any of these just the same old code hinting you get in CS4. Am I doing something wrong or does it just not work?

UPDATE: If it helps, in the code editor i get a small yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in, in the bottom right hand corner. When I have over this it advises me:

" *** Unable to build code hint cache. Please save the associated FLA into a different folder. There are too many files on the classpath. *** "

This error message appears no matter what FLA/Class i open, and moving it makes no difference.

UPDATE: Problem solved, the "There are too many files on the classpath" was the clue! Slimmed down my library and all seems to work now.

However, this does bring me on to another question.. does anyone know how many class files flash can comfortably cache? I use some fairly chunky libraries in my work and am wondering if i'm going to find myself constantly slimming them down after a while?

[nrajbhan]

Hi,

Lee Brimelow recently blogged about how to set the classes limit for the code-hinting cache at http://theflashblog.com/?p=2002

We are working on an official tech note for people who use big code libraries.

HTH,

Nivesh (Flash Pro QE Lead)

[GailTanzer]

I have the same issue, the code hints in Flash/Actionscript do not work. I looked and looked for the answer as well.

Then I decided what most often works, is deleting the preference file (which is often corrupt).

You can delete it from the flash folder or Quit the Flash Program, then once Flash is closed

hold down the ctrl+alt+shift at the same time as you launch Flash.

It will come up with a question, mine asked Allow Flash.exe to make changes to my system, I said yes.

Launced Flash again and now my code hints are working.

Hope that works for you.

Gail

[socalfish-fDJTBM]

I have this same problem. I can hold the Ctrl + Spacebar and get the code hints but it still has problems. It sometimes appears to bring up the wrong code hinting as well... say on a MouseaEvent. You have to first get the code hint for a MouseEvent then after Flash adds the import statement the code hints for a MouseEvent appear.

When trying this out I add a Movie Clip and add to the instance name "_mc". This has always showed the code hints... now you have to press the Ctrl+Spacebar to get them.

If anyone finds a solution, please let us know...

[matteosistisette]

Same or similar problem here.

Initially when I installed CS5, code hints worked fine. It used to:

- give me hints for built-in types, methods, properties, etc

- give me hints for my custom classes, for all the classes located in the same folder as the class I was editing, that is, I didn't need to add anything to the paths. If I referenced a class that was located in the same folder as the one i was editing, it automatically found it and gave me code hints

- it used to automatically add import statements. For example, if I wrote "var a:MovieClip", it added automatically an "import flash.display.MovieClip" statement at the beginning of the script

Then it stopped working: it would not give me any hint, NOT EVEN for built-in ones. And it wouldn't add import statements any more.

Deleting the preferences file (starting with ctrl+shift+alt) only partially fixed the problem: I now getjust SOME hints, only with built-in types and only a little subset of the hints you would get even from CS4.

But code hints with my custom classes (located in the current folder) don't work, AND import statements are not automatically added.

That is, it works worse than CS4. The CS5 intelligent code hints functionality are gone.

Please, someone from Adobe, tell us how to fix this annoying issue. The code hinting is completely broken.

thanks

m.

[skerr09]

I need this answered to. I have been working on a large project with no problems in Flash CS4. We need to

export Flash Lite 4, but this is a serious issue that is hindering development.

[socalfish-fDJTBM]

So far the only way I can get it to show code hints on IE: MovieClips with the _mc is by using the Ctrl+Spacebar. Even on Mosue Events it will not show the Event Hints until the import flash.Events.MouseEvents is added. The it shows the MouseEvent code hints.

I hope they get this fixed soon. It is a pain to always use the Ctrl+Spacebar. CS4 I never had this problem.

[matteosistisette]

This is really strange, because I actually SAW a copy of CS5 with code hints working fine, and they were great: it would give hint for your custom defined classes (no need to add them to any path, just saving tha as files in the same directory), and it automatically added the import statements every time you wrote the name of a class that you hadn't imported yet.

And it was the Master Collection trial downloaded from Adobe's website, the same one I downloaded. But on my computer it does not work.

Does anybody from Adobe give a sh*** about this?

[skerr09]

I just got it working.

Apparently, the code hit engine is searching EVERY folder in your project file. Well, I guess I had too many. They should really have this something you set in the instead of just iterating through files like this.

[skerr09]

I just got it working.

Apparently, the code hit engine is searching EVERY folder in your project file. Well, I guess I had too many. They should really have this something you set in the instead of just iterating through files like this.

[matteosistisette]

Not my case.

I have only one folder. I mean, the folder containing the .fla file and the .as files have no subfolders.

Also, did you have an alert icon somewhere on the bottom-right part of the screen indicating this? Many users who report this fix see this alert icon.

I don't see any.

[nrajbhan]

Hi,

>> Deleting the preferences file (starting  with ctrl+shift+alt) only  partially fixed the problem: I now getjust SOME hints, only with  built-in types and only a little subset of the hints you would get even  from CS4.

Flash doesn't delete the  preferences files when you launch it while holding ctrl+shift+alt.  Please try resetting your code-hint cache as follows:

1. Quit Flash

2. Delete your code-hint cache folder

Win XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS5\<language>\Configuration\CodeModel

Win Vista/Win7:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Flash CS5\<language>\Configuration\CodeModel

Mac:
/Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash CS5/<language>/Configuration/CodeModel

3. Re-start Flash and try again.

HTH,

Nivesh

[matteosistisette]

Flash doesn't delete the  preferences files when you launch it while holding ctrl+shift+alt.  Please try resetting your code-hint cache as follows:

1. Quit Flash

2. Delete your code-hint cache folder

Win XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS5\<language>\Configuration\CodeModel

3. Re-start Flash and try again.

HTH,

Nivesh

I already did that (sorry I forgot to mentiion). Didn't solve the problem.

By the way I'm afraid I was wrong when I said it used to work when freshly installed. I actually saw it working on a friend's computer, but I'm not sure it ever worked on mine.

Note that I don't have any alert icon and I have nothing in the classpath (never touched it).

[nrajbhan]

What's in your global classpath settings (Edit -> Preferences -> ActionScript category -> ActionScript 3.0 Settings... button)?  Do you commonly use other class libraries like PaperVision, gTween,  as3corelib, etc.?  If so, how many classes are in your FLA's classpath and in the global classpath?

What folder do you save your files in?  Does it help if you save to a different location?  The current working directory is part of the default classpath settings, so if you save your FLA on the Desktop, that can cause the code-hinting cache creation to fail since you might have lots of other files/folders on your Desktop too.

Do you have other user accounts on that machine?  If so, does code-hinting work for those other accounts?

Thanks,

Nivesh

[matteosistisette]

What's in your global classpath settings

Flex SDK path: $(AppConfig)/ActionScript 3.0/flex_sdk/4.0.0/

Source path: (empty)

Library path: (empty)

External Library path: (empty)

Do you commonly use other class libraries like PaperVision, gTween,  as3corelib, etc.?

No, never, none... yet.

What folder do you save your files in?

I always create a dedicated directory for each project. The directory is often not "clean", meaning there can be a couple .fla files (and some backup of the same file), some subfolder with unrelated .as files or backed-up .as files. This should not be enough to confuse the hints engine (if it is, then it sucks). I never create packages, so subfoldera only contain unrelated material, tests, or backups: mostly junk.

But I NEVER have _many_subfolders with dozens of files in it.

Does it help if you save to a different location? 

Actually my folders usually are on a network drive.

Now I did some tests and the results are crazy:

- moving an existing folder where hints don't work to another location inside C:/some/where doesn't help a bit

- creating some .fla and .as files FROM SCRATCH in a fresh new dir in C:/some/where/else ALL HINTS WORK (including automatic import statements)

- doing EXACTLY the same in X:/some/path (where X: is the network drive), sometimes hints work, then they stop working, in a random fashion, such as: I write

  var somevar:M...  --> hints appear, and if I choose MovieClip, the corresponding import statement is added

  var someothervar:S  --> hints don't appear, and if I write Sprite, NO import statement is added

They stop working _very_ soon, with just a couple of lines of code without syntax errors.

It seems that the hinting engine is extremely fragile, and at the slightest unexpected (by it) condition it fails and silently stops working without giving any hint (ops) about the cause of the failure.

Also, does it work only with projects that you create from scratch while he watches you write????

[nrajbhan]

Hi,

>> - moving an existing folder where hints don't work to another location  inside C:/some/where doesn't help a bit

Does the folder contain any hidden files/folders?  How many files/folders does it contain total?  It doesn't matter if they are AS or FLA files.  I just want to know the total number of files and folders within that folder that you are working in.

Note that we do not support working over a networked drive - http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/d9bbd9d4.html

Thanks,
Nivesh

[matteosistisette]

No hidden files or folders.

6 folders and a total of 51 files (of which 34 in the "root" folder and the rest in subfolders).

Most are .as files, few fla files and few other files. I'm "using" only one fla file, the others are backups or tests.

None of the subfolder corresponds to any package: my custom classes are all in the top level package and in the root folder. Subfolders contain images, backups, notes, and exported bins: all should be irrelevant to Flash.

The .as files that I am really using are 22. They have no syntax error: the main fla compiles and runs fine.

As I mentioned, moving the whole folder to the C: local drive didn't fix the problem.

Note that we do not support working over a networked drive - http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/d9bbd9d4.html

The Adobe Flash IDE, FLV Encoder, Adobe Media Encoderand Flash Player were not designed to function across LANs.

Oh wow, you were not kidding me. Can't believe that.

Were they designed to work on computers?

[tomservo6]

Has anyone figured out a solution yet?

I'm having the same issue. However, for me it sees the hints are working with the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl - Space) but the automatic code hints never pop up, even though I have them turned on. This problem occurs no matter how many library items, files in the folder, or where the folder and file is saved.

However, I wasn't able to test the deletion of the config file solution as it wasn't located on my machine where the thread indicated nor could a windows search find one.

[tomservo6]

Ah, I think I've figured out the reason on my own; it's an AS3 issue, not a

bug.

Created a shape on the stage, changed it to a movie clip, gave it an instance name of my_mc.

Started a frame script by typing "my_mc." but no code hints. The code hints work in AS2 but not in AS3, where no classes have the recognized built in methods and properties (such as alpha, mouse events etc.). Thus it doesn't know what code hints to bring up.

Another confirmation on why AS2 seems to me to be much more superior to AS3 for simple Flash development.

[matteosistisette]

Why shouldn't it give you AS3 hints for a movieclip?????

Your my_mc is an instance of flash.display.MovieClip which does have properties and methods such as alpha, witdth, x, y, so it should pop them up just as in AS2 it would pop up _alpha, _width, _x, _y.

[Sparkerman1711]

I agree. Creating a movie clip instance on the stage called "myClip_mc" should give you code hints for the movie clip class (x, y, alpha, etc). It worked in AS3 in CS4 but not in CS5. This blows!

Is there in fixes for this????

[socalfish-fDJTBM]

I thought adding a import flash.dispaly.MovieClip might bring in the code hints for a MovieClip having the instance name my_mc. Still no hints unless you use the keyboard shortcut.

Yes code hinting worked in CS4 in AS3. Still Adobe has not been able to resolve this issue in CS5... to my knowledge. Wish they would, cause it would sure cut down on my typing!

[Sparkerman1711]

What I don't like about the keyboard shorcuts is that they seem to show properties and methods that don't relate or not valid to the object you are using. I guess it's better than nothing.

[Orpical]

Just want to report that I had this problem and deleting the cache following the instructions from Nivesh in post #12 fixed the prob immediately. THANK YOU!

[nrajbhan]

Hi,

By default, the current working directory is  part of the FLA's classpath (signified by the '.' in the classpath  dialog).  If Flash is unable to build the code-hint cache due to too many classes and files/folders in your classpath, it will display an alert icon at the bottom right of the code editor with a tooltip that specifies what you can do to alleviate the issue.

We're glad you were able to get it working.

-Nivesh