Comments on: Flexcover: A Code Coverage Tool for Flex, AIR and AS3

By: Flex test coverage?

Flex test coverage? — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:42:49 +0000

[...] frameworks they use for test unit coverage in Flex? A quick google search pointed me to this article describing Flexcover, just what I was looking for. Please share your [...]

By: Daniel Dura » Want to Hack on the Flex Compiler?

Daniel Dura » Want to Hack on the Flex Compiler? — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:26:03 +0000

[...] I actually do with this information? One great example is the new Flex code coverage tool called Flex Cover written by Joe Berkovitz. The tool basically adds functionality to the Flex compiler so that the bytecode it outputs [...]

By: joe

joe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:37:06 +0000

Well, we don’t call it “experimental” for nothing! This is a bug in the CoverageManager. I’ve logged it as issue #3. As a workaround, you might get hold of the CoverageManager source and stick a try/catch around the line 203 that is causing the problem, then simply compile this source along with your application to override the built-in CoverageManager class.

That CoverageManager source can be found here:

http://flexcover-sdk.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/flex3.0.x/frameworks/projects/utilities/src/com/allurent/coverage/runtime/CoverageManager.as

I’ll fix it in the next release, hopefully out in the next week or two.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:00:49 +0000

Thanks Joe, the flushing now works fine but there is an error just before the coverageManager tries to shutdown the application:

ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable NativeApplication is not defined.
at global/flash.utils::getDefinitionByName()
at com.allurent.coverage.runtime::CoverageManager$/checkForExit()[C:\work\flex\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\utilities\src\com\allurent\coverage\runtime\CoverageManager.as:203]
at com.allurent.coverage.runtime::CoverageManager$/handleStatus()[C:\work\flex\3.0.x\frameworks\projects\utilities\src\com\allurent\coverage\runtime\CoverageManager.as:196]

By: joe

joe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:12:32 +0000

Robert, if you are running an automated test suite that exits when finished, don’t call System.exit() or fscommand(quit). Instead call CoverageManager.exit() at the end of your test suite to first flush out all the accumulated data to the LocalConnection and exit only when that has happened.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:00:04 +0000

Found another issue and I’m not sure if this depends on flexCover or flexUnit (we’re using a slight modified version). When running a test suite, only the first test that is executed (which one seems not to be deterministic) sends its results to the coverageViewer. Is this something you’ve seen too ?

By: joe

joe — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:33:43 +0000

Robert — I’m aware of this problem, which occurs when the top level application SWF is either not compiled with -coverage, or it is not a Flex/AIR application.

There are two workarounds: one is to compile your top-level application SWF with -coverage (assuming it’s a Flex or AIR app). The other way is to include the following snippet somewhere in a class within the SWF that is compiled with -coverage:

import coverage; coverage;

I am working on this problem and hope to make this issue disappear in the next relrease.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:15:11 +0000

Great work, it works very good. I’m having trouble integrating with a large project though. I’m running
the compiler from the command line and that works well. The problem occurrs when starting the compiled swf since an exception is thrown:
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable coverage is not defined.
This only happens when the -coverge parameter is set during compilation of the swf. It does however create the metadata file with information but I cant run the app since that exception is thrown. Do you have any clue ?

By: joe

joe — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:49:59 +0000

You should be able to launch the CoverageViewer from Java, it’s just an executable that takes command line arguments. Ant is written in Java, and Ant drives all the examples in the project. Use the “-v” switch with Ant to see how it actually invokes the viewer.

By: VELO

VELO — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:14:08 +0000

Hi Joe,

Is there any plan for a java Runner?

I would like to launch it from flex-mojos (My project, who adds flex compilation and tests for flex)

Any plans for anything like that?

VELO