Installing Flex SDK into Flash Builder 4.7 problems

[JulieAHP]

Hi,

Im completely new to Flash Builder, today I have installed Flash Builder 4.7 & Flash CS6 from Creative Cloud for my son to start to learn game programming (with my help), I have used simple coding in web design however this terminology is new to me.

I bought my son the latest 'Foundation Game Design with ActionScript 3.0' book on recommendation but it was written when FB was version 4.5 so im guessing this might be the problem.

The book is very easy to follow but have hit problems at the beginning of the tutorials, the book talks about Flex SDK but it seems that FB 4.7 uses AIR SDK ?

So the first project called HelloWorld, we got up to:

Got an exclamation mark which said

'The import flash.display.Sprite is not used

locally'

Continuing with the rest of the project the exclamation mark disappeared:

However on selecting run- Debug we got a blank Flash Player window  ('generate HTML wrapper file' was deselected)

So either we've done something wrong, or the book and FB version are not compatible?

Any advice would be great!

Thank you

Latest ...

I thought that installing Flex SDK may solve the problem but after following instructions I have the error message, see image below. Really stumped now!

[Kevin_Sherrill]

I've been using Fb for a few weeks now and I have recently experienced similar pain.

I recommend the article:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/ane-android-devices.html

As the author covers setting up merged Flex-AIR sdk's.

Personally, I'm using Windows 7 and ApacheFlex 4.9.1, with all options, installed into a clean directory.

Then I created the folder c:\ApacheFlexSDK4.9.1_AIRSDK3.7.0.1530

Copy the contents of the Flex folder into the new directory.

  (4.9.1 has an older version of AIR 3.1 already in it, so we'll overlay that.)

Then copy in AIRSDK3.7.zip (the version without the compiler) and unzip it into this folder. You can find all the AIR SDK's here:

    http://helpx.adobe.com/air/kb/archived-air-sdk-version.html

(All the unzipping is simple right-mouse drag and drop using 7zip.)

Then you'll create your FB project, select its properties, goto the compiler options, select 'manage SDK's', add your new merged SDK.

Hopefully that's enough to get you started.

I got started on Flash Builder by first going to Lynda.com and watching several tutorials there. There's a ton of stuff there on using Flash Builder, Eclipse (FB is really just a plugin for Eclipse), Flex development, Actionscript development, game development - you name it. Also check out AdobeTV for lots of free videos on using FB and Flash Pro. There's also some good stuff under the MAX conference 2011 folder for a number of talks on game development.

tv.adobe.com

[JulieAHP]

Hi Kevin

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question, I have read through this along with the links and I dont feel confident enough to attempt to instal a SDK, it looks quite complicated for a novice! I am going to read up some more so I have a better understanding of the files. Ill report back when I resolve my issue ...

Julie

[Kevin_Sherrill]

Sorry, if I went a little overboard. After re-reading your post, perhaps I should back up a little.

First, there are little things that Flash Builder (FB) will complain about. Having extra import statements in your code doesn't hurt anything. If I'm trying different solutions and then commenting out the code, the import statements will hang around, FB will complain, but just ignore it. If you see a little icon on the left edge of your code editor and its a red circle with an X in it, then that is something that will have to be fixed.

When you create an app in FB or Flash you can choose to create a web app which means it will run in a browser window. The project can optionally create an HTML wrapper, or web page that will load your app. In Flash Pro you can choose File->Publish Settings and there will be a checkbox on the left to publish a HTML wrapper. In FB, you can right click your project in the Package Explorer, select Properties at the bottom, select the ActionScript Compiler, and down at the bottom there will be a checkbox to create a HTML wrapper.

If you're just learning Flash Builder, then the FlexSDK 4.6 and the AIR SDK 3.1 that comes with it should be fine. You mentioned Apache SDK and I'd recently been working with that so I ended up getting side-tracked.

Getting an AIRSDK to work with when build ActionScript projects is easy. Just go to the adobe site, type AIR SDK in the search box, and you should find a page that will let you downloaded the latest version. There's also a page to let you download the latest AIR runtime, and if you were just going to run AIR apps and not build them, then that's all you would need. As a developer you'll want to install the runtime from the downloaded .exe file. With the SDK, after downloading it, installing it is easy. Just create a new folder an unzip the SDK into it, then place it somewhere easy to find. I put all my SDK's in their own directory right off the c: drive. So I have c:\AIRSDK_3.5.0.880 and c:\AIRSDK_3.7.0.1530. I use very descriptive folder names so I always know which SDK's I have to work from.

To use the SDK in Flash Pro select Help -> Manage AIR SDK, hit the plus button and add the folder you created. Now when you've opened a Flash project, you go to File->Publish Settings and select the combo box at the top, you'll see options like 'AIR 3.7.0.1530 for Android' in the list that reflect the SDK's you've added.

Generally with FB you'll be using a FlexSDK, or perhaps a FlexSDK overlaid with a newer version of AIRSDK. Overlaid basically means you copied the contents of the AIR SDK into the Flex Folder. The article I mentioned above will give you all the details on creating those. For instance, I downloaded the Apache Flex installer, installed it, then created an empty folder called c:\ApacheFlexSDK_4.9.1, launched the Apache installer, gave it the new empty folder I'd created, selected all the download options, and let it all download. If it launches a popup box or a security warning, you can allow it, and it will continue. Once you have the SDK and you want to use it with a project in FB, just right click the project, select Properties, selected that Compiler tab again, and up in the right corner you'll see 'Manage SDK's...'. Hit that link, add your new SDK to the list and give it a descriptive name, then selected the checkbox beside it to set it up as your default. If you do this, then all your projects set to use the default will automatically switch to it and rebuild. So if you want a project to stay with a specific SDK then select that option in your Compiler tab, and then you could use the combo box to select your new added SDK.

When I started with FB I think I spent the first 2 days going round and round with project settings and options until I got them all figured out.

When I develop, I usually have my browser open and I have bookmarks and favorites to let me quickly get to all the pages I use most often. Here are a few of them:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/index.html  <---- The API reference. In the packages window check out 'Top Level' at the top and Language Elements near the bottom. I think I have this page open in one or more tabs almost every day.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet.html

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/learning.html

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/as3/learn/index.html

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash.html

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/flashbuilder/using/index.html

Free videos to help you learn Flash Pro:

http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-flash-professional-cs6-/

http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-flash-professional-cs5/

And you've already found the forums! But if you don't find an answer here, many times you can find your question already answered on www.stackoverflow.com forums.

Ok, I think I went a little overboard again.

[pomps11]

There was nothing wrong with your instalation, sdks or your code. You needent worry about installing sdks for such a simple project. A blank white window is the expected result for your code. trace() statements output text to the console window and not to the flash player display list. You can find the console window inside of flash builder. If you were expecting to display text inside the flash player the code should be something like this.

var textField:TextField = new TextField();

textField.text ="Hello wolrd";

addChild(textField);