Debugging Work Environment Flash Builder, SCORM and Moodle

[5Systems]

I am reading up on SCORM and MOODLE, I know very little of each, and I am trying to figure out how you would go about setting up a work environment to build my swf based SCO in Flash Builder and retain debugging capabilities. All communication between a SCO and Moodle happens through a JavaScript API. This is the only way for communication to occur. There are no other communication channels available. Content can not communicate through web services, form posts, database writes or any other mechanism, only through the JavaScript API provided by Moodle. So my delema is, how do you set up a work environment where you create a swf based SCO in the FB IDE and retain debugging and tracing capabilites since you cant launch a SCORM/MOODLE connected object from the debug button in FB, it can only be launched from Moodle.

If anyone has a workflow, or tutorial or general info on how to go about doing this, that would be great.

Thanks,

[merobertsjr]

Hi,

I think the short answer is that you don't.  But you can complete some testing using SCORM cloud and get some debugging information.  You can sign up for a free account and test and get info about the launch and data being exchanged here http://scorm.com/scorm-solved/scorm-cloud/ the module has to launch and initialize as a SCO, and I am not aware of any other way to debug this other than to use a tool designed for this purpose.

Michael

www.vtrainingroom.com

[5Systems]

Thank you Michael,

I fear you are right as I see no way to do it.  I have found a possible solution with the Xray Logger and Air based XRay Viewer by John Grden. Not an optimal solution, as I can't use my IDE for Debugging and XRay is quite old and has not been updated in long time, But if it works with the Flex SDK 4.0+ then maybe this is a workable solution.

Thanks for the info on SCORM cloud, I will look into it further.

[Adrian_Raper]

Just come across your post. I've just tried to do solve the same problem. I did it like this:

1) I am running FlashBuilder 4.5 which has the actionscript for the swf loaded as a Flex project. I set a breakpoint on the part where I start doing SCORM stuff.

2) I login to Moodle in a browser tab so that the authentication is all running

3) I put the URL for the moodle course into the Start page for the Flash Builder debug configurations (something like: http://dock.projectbench/moodle/course/view.php?id=2)

4) Then when I run the FlashBuilder debugger, it starts that page and lets me begin the Moodle SCORM object I imported. Once this loads my swf and hits the breakpoint I am sent back to FlashBuilder and away I go.

Hope this is helpful

Adrian

[Gaius_Coffey]

Hi,

I have done some similar debugging by using proxy software to substitute a dev file for the requested file from the server.

There are a number of alternatives, but I've found that Charles is good for this.

Procedure is this:

1. Start your proxy / sniffing software

2. Open the SCORM module

3. Search for the request for your SWF file

4. Map the request to the SWF to use a proxy to the local debug SWF instead (eg: the one in bin-debug)

5. Clear your cache! (VERY IMPORTANT!)

6. In Flash Builder, go to run configurations and create a new configuration using the URL to the running SCORM module

7. Test using your modified configuration

What happens is that everything loads as per launch via SCORM, but it substitutes the SWF with your test version and that allows debug to proceed as normal.

NB: Charles doesn't appear to have any dynamic way to manage map local so, if you use that, I would recommend implementing a version number on context menu or similar so that you can be sure you are testing against the correct debug version.

G