First off, if you work on the web you should familiarize yourself with HTTP Headers.
HTTP Headers form the core of an HTTP request, and are very important in an HTTP response. They define various characteristics of the data that is requested or the data that has been provided. The headers are separated from the request or response body by a blank line. HTTP headers can be near-arbitrary strings, but only some are commonly understood. – wiki
Wow, What did that just say?
There are two add-ons to firefox which will significantly help you troubleshoot problems with your site especially if your making alot of calls for assets. You should have at least 1 of them, take your pick: Firebug or liveHTTPHeaders. Both will monitor HTTP Headers for you. I am sure there others, however these are the ones i have used and have had success with.
Now lets talk about how this can help you.
When you deal with Flash in the manner that i do. Your loading a base swf and XML. loading content in various swfs who’s content is loading XML, who’s XML has paths to images and assets. That can be a lot of data to look at, and when something doesn’t show up… Then what?
Personally, i turn to Firebug first. turn on headers and refresh the site. I then watch the headers, which is tracing every call I am making. With firebug you will quickly see red 404 show up with the file path that was called. This can very easily save you a TON of time digging through code… looking for some error only to discover you made a typo in the file name you called.
This very simple add on and change to your troubleshooting process can save you time and your sanity.
Firebug does not stop there, Firebug offers some Robust features for Inspecting elements which i will talk about at a later time. You should Install Now, And start using these great features.
Tags: community, tips, troubleshooting
