3.3 Using flex 3 in a flex 4 world  (Page 5/6)

Re-opening the project later

However, that folder also contains a file named test.as3proj that is not shown in Figure 4. You can double-click this file later to re-openthe project in FlashDevelop.

Double-click the mxml file

The next step is to double-click the file shown in Figure 4 named Main.mxml . This will open that file in a text editor as shown in Figure 5.

Figure

Flashdevelop text editor showing skeleton code for a flex 3 project.

Skeleton code

At this point, the text editor shown in Figure 5 contains the skeleton code for a Flex 3 project similar to what you saw in Listing 1 of the earlier lesson titled The Default Application Container - Flex 3 and Flex 4 .

Modify and compile the program

Replace the skeleton code shown in Figure 5 with the code shown in Listing 1 above.

Then select Build Project on the Project menu.

Note the panel at the bottom of the IDE

You can drag and open a panel at the bottom of the IDE, if necessary, to expose the compiler output text.

Quite a lot of text will appear in that panel.

If everything goes well, the last line of text in that panel will end with the words "Build succeeded" .

Test the program

Select Test Movie on the Project menu. If all goes well, The Flash Player should open and display something very similarto Figure 6.

Figure

Test program output displayed in the flash player.

Create a Release Build

If you like what you see at this point, select Release in the pull-down list shown near the upper-right corner of Figure 7 and build theproject again.

This will modify the contents of the folder named bin shown in Figure 4. This new version of the folder named bin can be deployed on a server.

Figure

Flashdevelop showing the debug/release pull-down list.

Executing the Flex project

The folder named bin contains a file named index.html as well as a swf file. You can open that html file in a browser to play the Flash movie provided that the Flash Player plug-in,version 9 or later, has been installed in the browser.

The swf file can also be opened directly in a stand-alone Flash player, version 9 or later.

What is the difference between the Debug and Release builds?

While it is also possible to get an output that can be run in the Flash Player in Debug mode (the opposite of Release mode) , the output produced in Release mode is normally smaller and more compact.

Pros and cons of the FlashDevelop program

By now, you have probably concluded that the FlashDevelop program makes it easier to develop and deploy Flex programs than is the case for the developing such programs from the command line.

Deployment made simple

In addition to providing a nice text editor, the program also handles the tedious task of creating the files necessary to deploy the application andcreates a folder named bin containing all of the necessary files.

The downside

The primary downside of FlashDevelop (relative to Flex Builder 3 or Flash Builder 4) , is that the FlashDevelop program does not provide the drag-and-drop visual design mode for GUI components that is provided by the twoAdobe builder programs.