Publish Preview returns blank flash window

Question

Hi guys,
I recently switched computers, going from a windows vista with Adobe flash cs5.5 v to windows 8.1 with Adobe flash cs6 v12.0.2.529.
We've been working on a flash project in cs5.5 and everything worked fine however now I'm getting some strange behavior.
The problem I'm having is that the publish preview returns blank.
It has the right size and stage color but nothing is shown.
And I can't retrieve images from a runtime shared library.
Here's some sample code that illustrates the problem (this used to work fine in cs5.5):
package classes
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
    import flash.display.Sprite;
    import flash.external.*;
    public class ExampleClass extends MovieClip
        public function ExampleClass()
            ExternalInterface.addCallback("Show", Show);
            var test:Sprite = new Sprite();
            test.graphics.beginFill(0xff00ff);
            test.graphics.drawCircle(0, 0, 100);
            addChild(test);
            var test02:Sprite = new (getDefinitionByName("ConnectionIcon_Orange") as Class)();
            addChild(test02);
        private function Show():void
In this example I don't see the "test" Sprite's graphic.
When I comment the following line:
ExternalInterface.addCallback("Show", Show);
I do see the "test" Sprite's graphic.
With the test02 Sprite I try to retrieve an image from a runtime shared library but it never shows up (it did in cs5.5 do i need to make any new setting changes?).
I'm not getting any error messages and it seems fine with the code.
could anyone please point me to where I'm going wrong?
Cheers

Answer 1

Few random things I'd try..
First, are you running this in debugger? (CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER)? If not then use that means of executing and put some breakpoints in the code so you can watch the code execute step by step to see what's generating an error. In publish settings for this SWF in the SWF parameters make sure you check to permit debugging to get more verbose errors:
Explicitly including ExternalInterface rather than flash.external.*;. It should include it (and everything in the package) but I've had lookup issues with this before. So:
import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
See if that clears up the break on that line. You should set a break point above that line however so you can step into the command and watch for errors.
Make sure your access toggle (network/local files) is correct to access your RSL.
Sometimes a couple more lines of code for clarity can help a lot. Break up your getDefinitionByName line into 2 lines, maybe adding in a condition just so you can step through it and analyze exactly which part of that compound statement is going wrong. It could be as simple as your "new (...)" isn't being cast to a Sprite before you assign it so the line fails. So try:
var test2Class:Class = getDefinitionByName("ConnectionIcon_Orange") as Class;
if (test2Class)
  var test02:Sprite = new test2Class() as Sprite; // cast
By stepping through it you'll see if your definition cannot be found (RSL or link issue) or if assigning it to a Sprite (test02) is the issue (perhaps it's a MovieClip or some other unexpected type and this fails).