Using Flash Builder

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Flash Builder is the commercial development environment for Flash/Flex projects from Adobe. It is available in standard and premium versions. Flash Builder (formerly called Flex Builder) is available in a trial version and for reduced prices to students, teachers and unemployed developers.

Contents

General Resources

Installing and Configuring Flash Builder

  • You may get Flash Builder at:
  • Initially, even if you have Eclipse and are familiar with it, start with the standalone version. It will be faster to install and configure. Then, once you are familiar with the system, you can move it to Eclipse
  • Adobe offers a large suite of installation and configuration help

Tortoise SVN

  • It is a useful idea to have TortoiseSVN also installed in order to keep synchronized with Semantic Component builds. There is a useful tutorial on the use of the system.

Setting Up a Project

To set up your own project, you will need to download the sComponent source, set up a local instance, and configure Flash Builder.

FlashBuilder.png

Download Source

Normally, you:

  1. create a new directory
  2. right click on it, svn->checkout (assuming TortoiseSVN)
  3. put the credentials that you can find on the Google code page.

Depending, however, you may also want to only load certain branches of the code base. Here is one example for the dev branch: 

http://code.google.com/p/semanticcomponents/source/browse/#svn%2Fbranches%2Fdev

Configure Local Instance

Fortunately, since the SVN builds for sComponents are based on Flash Builder, configuring downloaded projects is pretty straightforward. The most likely area requiring some attention is in build paths, which you need to make sure can find all of your project building blocks.

Initial Project Load

To start the initial project, go to File --> New --> Create a Flex Project, and note these changes:

  • Give your project a name
  • Point the directory to the location where you stored the files locally
  • Use the Flex 3.5 SDK

Setting the Build Paths

Once the above is done, you are now able to set the additional settings as found under Project --> Properties --> Flex Build Path.

Your project is properly configured when you are able to compile an existing project without errors (see next).

Build Project

Basic projects can be handled using Flash Builder's automatic build setting, using the Build Automatically setting under the Project main menu item.

To run a project, do so under this main menu item: 

Run --> Run ProjectName ...

You may get errors and warnings; all errors must be corrected before a working movie is created.

A successful run with no errors produces the compiled, runnable movie for the project (e.g., ProjectName.swf), the "swiff" file. You will also get some additional files for embedding (HTML) and other uses.

It is also useful to do an occasional "clean" under the Build menu item. This removes everything, and rebuilds the *.swf file from the start.

Output Files and Destinations

Each time a project is run, errors or output are written to the subdirectories under the bin-debug directory. This is the location where the *.swf compiled result is also written.

If Problems

Lastly, there is a wealth of online resources (see top section above) with tutorials, forums, language references and help files to help you work through any problems.

Once Local Project is Re-built

Once you have successfully re-built the project locally, you and then ready to make changes and customize your version of the sComponent. You should refer to:

  1. The general sComponent documentation
  2. The specific information on Styling Semantic Components.
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