Flash Builder 4 - An internal build error

[ilya_k]

Greetings!

This question was posted in Flex forum but I got no responses and realized that it was

the wrong forum....Pleas help!

We are using Eclipse 3.4 or 3,5 with Flash 4 plugin and Flex SDK 3.3.0 on Win XP.

Project set comprises several (more than a couple dozen), dependent  Flex and Java projects.

Most of us run across an internal build error in all Flex projects:

"An internal build error has occurred. Right-click for more information"

The topmost stack trace entries are:

!ENTRY com.adobe.flexbuilder.project 4 43 2010-07-23 14:40:38.353

!MESSAGE Uncaught exception in compiler

!STACK 0

java.lang.NullPointerException

at com.adobe.flexbuilder.multisdk.compiler.internal.ASBuilder.applySettings(ASBuil der.java:325)

at com.adobe.flexbuilder.multisdk.compiler.internal.ASApplicationBuilder.setup(ASA pplicationBuilder.java:67)

at com.adobe.flexbuilder.multisdk.compiler.internal.ASItemBuilder.setup(ASItemBuil der.java:54)

at com.adobe.flexbuilder.project.compiler.BuilderFactory.createBuilder(BuilderFact ory.java:80)

at com.adobe.flexbuilder.project.compiler.BuilderFactory.createBuilder(BuilderFact ory.java:59)

at com.adobe.flexbuilder.project.compiler.BuilderManager.getBuilder(BuilderManager .java:192)

...

When it happens you can not open project "Properties | Flex Compiler"  dialog because error

message pops up saying "The currently displayed page contains invalid values."

I am not sure how "an internal build error..." relates to "...displayed page contains invalid values"

but  it worth to mention anyway.

So far we did not find how to get around the problem except deleting project set and even

sometimes uninstall Flash Builder 4 and start from scratch.

I represent a several teams in the big corporation (even I speak for myself) with many

licenses bought. It is so painful that, if  we do get help from Adobe we will  consider moving

out of Flash Builder and use another IDE.

Thanks for your help.

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Ouch. Looks like a bad bug in Flash Builder.

That piece of code injects Eclipse linked resource paths into the compiler path configuration.

Could you please go to Window -> Preferences, General -> Workspace -> Linked Resources and try removing any paths that are defined there to see if it helps? (Before removing it, it would be great to know which all paths you had defined to help reproduce the bug)

Meanwhile, I'll file a bug on this.

[ilya_k]

Thank you Anirudh for looking into it.

The linked resource is:

name:       DOCUMENTS

location:   C:\project\scc32\scc32_ilyak2_ws

As the name implies 'scc32_ilyak2_ws' is Eclipse workspace directory.

Removing the linked resource does not seem to help. Building any Flex project, say,

scc_components by going to  Project->Clean->Build Project still ends up with error.

"An internal build error has occurred. Right-click for more information. scc_components Unknown Flex Problem"

And clicking  project Properties | Flex Compiler pops up error message

I will attach  faulty project to the bug report.

Thank you for your help.

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

This is the bug: https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FB-27204

It would be great if you can comment with the exact steps to reproduce if it does not match what is written in the bug description.

[Sunil_Bannur]

Also, if you can attach the faulty project in the bug report, it would be useful.

Thanks

-Sunil

[ilya_k]

Hi Sunil,

I exported a simple faulty test Flex project as fxp-file. Surprisely  Its size is over 23 Mb. Do you still want me to upload it?

Thanks,

_Ilya

[Sunil_Bannur]

Usually they are in the order of Kbs. But you can go ahead and upload it.

Thanks

-Sunil

[ilya_k]

I uploaded stack trace, screenshots and faulty project. Is anybody looking at the issue?

Thanks

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

I'll take a look at the FXP and get back to you.

Thanks,

Anirudh

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Hi

I can't seem to be able to reproduce this. But looking at the code, I can offer a few suggestions.

Can you please edit the DOCUMENTS linked resource variable to point to your workspace folder and see if the problem gets fixed?

If that doesn't help:

I understand this might be harder to verify, but any help would be appreciated: Can you please try this same project in Eclipse 3.5 or with Flex Builder Standalone?

Thanks,

Anirudh

[ilya_k]

Hi,

DOCUMENTS points to Eclipse workspace (see my post above in this thread).

Eclipse 3.5 plugin has similar problem.

I never seen anything like that in standalone FB4. My feeling, although I could be wrong, 

it is Eclipse plugin specific problem.

Thanks.

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Does changing the SDK to the one that shipped with Builder 4.0.1 help?

Thanks,

Anirudh

[ilya_k]

Hi Anirudh,

Using SDK 4.x  would be not as simple... Question though, my FB additional compiler settings are:

-services "../WebContent/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml" -load-config "../../../scc-flex-config.xml" -locale= -target-player=10.0.0 -debug=true -optimize=false -incremental=true

and I am curious whether FB gets confused somehow because something is not quite correct (for instance target-player).

But the bad thing is: once FB throws the internal build error there is no way to open Project->Properties->FlexCompiler

screen because it throws exception as well.

Thanks,

Ilya

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Can you try taking away everything except -services to see if the problem is still reproducible? If that fixes it, attach your scc-flex-config.xml to the bug as well.

I appreciate your patience in answering my queries. Without being able to repro this, I'd have to ask a lot to get an idea of what the problem could be.

Thanks,

Anirudh

[ilya_k]

I believe that 'additionalCompilerArguments' of the  faulty project I uploaded look like this:

<compiler additionalCompilerArguments="-locale en_US" autoRSLOrdering="false" copyDependentFiles="true" fteInMXComponents="false" generateAccessible="false" htmlExpressInstall="true" htmlGenerate="true" htmlHistoryManagement="true" htmlPlayerVersionCheck="true" includeNetmonSwc="false" outputFolderPath="bin-debug" sourceFolderPath="src" strict="true" targetPlayerVersion="10.0.0" useApolloConfig="false" useDebugRSLSwfs="true" verifyDigests="true" warn="true">

nothing strange or unusual - all defaults.

To answer your question - it does not make any difference whether I remove everything from 'additionalCompilerArguments' or not -

FB would still fail.

I understand it is not so easy to work on the issue you can't repro and I try to figure out what is the best way to approach the problem

and give you access to out environment.

Off topic:

At this point we doubt that FB plugin is stable enouph to handle relatively complex project set and we are waiting

for update. Have not heard what is your plans.

It is great IDE and it works very well in the homogeneous environment  - no doubt.

Example of one problem: FB plugin has no way to filter out what goes to the output build directory. 

For instance, CCRC plugin creates metadata file .copyarea.db in each directory that under source control.

Those files should not be copied to the output directory. They are read-only with dot as a first character in name.

So, you will  always fail when run project->clean & build. It is just simple example and sure the workaround exists,

but how many litlte things like that...

Thanks,

_Ilya

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Hi ilya,

I tried the same project on the plugin version as well. Didn't repro, which means there is something unique about your setup.

That brings me to another way to get more info about this:

Can you switch to a brand new workspace, create a new Flex project and copy the files (from explorer/finder) into that project's src directory?

Now when you go to compiler settings, it should all work. Make changes to the compiler settings one by one till you hit the build error.

Off topic:

Ilya, as the developer working on the product, I can assure you that people with complicated project structures and big projects are using Flash Builder. The really big projects do have trouble with memory usage and we try and solve any such issues at the earliest - since we know FB has to scale along with the complexity of customer's projects and the maturity of our platform.

In your case, the project setup is very simple compared to the others I've seen. There must be something, a key step that we are missing to reproduce the problem. I'll help you in any way possible to identify it.

If all else fails, would you be available for a connect meeting so that I can see your screen live?

Thanks,

Anirudh

[ilya_k]

Hi Anirudh,

I tried everything. .. 

I know  that you, guys do your best to make FB the best Flex IDE

I was talking to my boss about giving you access to our codeline.

I do not see any other way to figure out what is wrong in our settings

that causes failure.

As far as meeting is concerned what kind of meeting you prefer -

MS Net meeting, MS Live meeting, Sisco meeting,

anything else? I am sure Adobe has its own net meeting.

Thanks,

_Ilya

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Adobe has its own meeting system - Adobe Connect.

Let me know the time and your email address and I'll set up the meeting - send it to anirudhs (at) adobe (dot) com.

Thanks,

Anirudh

[ilya_k]

Thank you Anirudh.

I passed the request to set up Web meeting with you  to my boss. His boss and his boss'es boss, etc. 

should be agree as well.

When everybody agree and when compiler error happens again I will save Eclispe/FB snapshot and will

contact you.

Thanks again for your support.

_Ilya

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

You're welcome, Ilya.

I've also been thinking of another thing: Send me an email, and I could send you an experimental file to see if it fixes your problem.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,

Anirudh Sasikumar,

Flash Builder Engineering

[ilya_k]

Hi Anirudh,

Without any obvious reasons it did happen again.

Thanks,

_Ilya

ikagansky at yahoo dot com

[ilya_k]

Hi Anirudh,

it start happening again... I sent you my email address in the previous post.

did not get response from you.

do it again. ikagansky@yahoo.com. It is the email address linked to my Adobe account.

Still did not get an answer from my manager about setting live meeting.

Thanks,

_Ilya

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Hi,

I'll email you.

Thanks,

Anirudh

[wicket971]

I'm on a mac and get this exact same error. It randomly occurs and usually a reboot is in order to get my project working. I did remove the linked resources and that got me up and running again.

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Great to hear that - I've also asked from some info from ilya and if his problem gets resolved as well, I will file a bug and fix this.