No Design Mode in Flash Builder 4.7

[Blake1024]

It took me many hours to figure this out so I thought I would share what I discovered to make it easier on others.

1.  Flash Builder 4.7 no longer has Design Mode (being able to design forms graphically).  4.6 was the last version to support it.

2.  Adobe will not sell you 4.6 (or 4.5).  They only sell 4.7.  They suggest you find a retailer who has an old box.

3.  Don't bother complaining, the word is "real programmers don't use design mode".

4.  I called support yesterday to get some questions answered.  I was told the wait time is over 2 hours and I can't leave a callback number.  (At least at that time, they only let you leave a callback number for product returns - which I also did.)

I spent over 8 hours on this yesterday at a cost, in terms of lost revenue, of 4 figures.  I hope this saves you some time.

Blake

[Riccardo_Moschetti]

Hi Blake,

In another page (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1056583), Adobe states that it will be possible to download 4.6 in alternative to 4.7, to still have the Design View. However, I have not seen such possibility yet.

I will not say that "real programmers don't use design mode". They do, if it works fine.

However, the Design View was not very useful for mobile projects, if you wanted to create an interface which, at run time, adapts to different screen estates.

It was very good to draw an initial mock-up, but only the simulator (and the device) can say how the app really looks like (if you want to know more, please have a look here: http://aliencoding.com/2013/02/22/adobe-flash-builder-4-7-has-no-design-view-is-it-blasphemy-no-but-...).

If you develop for desktop, then I agree the Design View lack is a real drag. I think Adobe should at least lower the price of the program, now that it's been scaled down for (I think) copyright issues (the Design mode relies on Flash professional components that was not donated to Apache).

I love this platform because it really saved my butt in cases of real fast devployment, BUT NOW it lacks support for Windows 8 that PhoneGap has...

Can we say... it is a legacy framework by now? 

[Blake1024]

My system has about 500 Flex 3.5 screens.  It would cost me at least $200K to move to Flex 4, or more than $1M to move to a different technology.  These are options no longer available to me.  Design mode was used a lot within my organization.  Losing design mode will significantly increase development costs for me.  Dropping Flash on Linux and Android has killed the Flash name for people in the industry.  Even though you may not use Linux, moves like this tell the world they are dropping the whole technology long-term.  No one I know wants any part of the fading technology.  Since they dropped design mode, and I will soon not be able to buy 4.6 anymore, they are basically saying I can't hire more people (since I can't buy them a development license).

In addition to all this, it now takes hours to get anyone on the phone and they typically don't know anything.  Adobe products are a foolish thing to invest in anymore.

Thanks.

Blake

[Riccardo_Moschetti]

Hi Blake,

I invested time and money in the Flash Platforms (Professional and Builder) myself, so I feel you.

I don't think Adobe products in general are a foolish thing to invest: simply, Adobe does not seem anymore the way to go w/r/t enterprise programming tools. When they gave up on the Flash & Coldfusion infrastructure (because I agree they have given Flash up as you say, whatever some clever pundits might still suggest about its state in life) they failed, and they failed us who invested a lot of money in licenses. To add insult to injury, I bought the FB licenses a few months before the stuff was donated to Apache... a refund now?

[SharedDynamics]

When Macromedia got sucked into Adobe's vortex I was pissed.  Macromedia really valued their customer base and I was sure that would go away.  But after a while Adobe grew on me and at one time I really wanted to work there. 

Now its basically an Indian company with a bunch of people in San Francisco making some really poor decisions.  The ColdFusion roadmap is a joke, because it will never happen.  What the hell is Ray Camden doing these days?  Did he even speak a word at MAX 13, other than tweets?  I bet he wishes he'd  stayed with Jereme Allaire and Brightecove.  Hopefully they'll donate the good parts of ColdFusion to Railo before the bankers get a hold of the place.

And don't get me started on Creative Cloud.  I'm doing it for a year till it goes to $49.95 and I'll leave just like everyone who doesn't work for an agencyt and look for a "slightly used" Master Edition 5.5 on Ebay.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled program...all ready in progress.