Flash vs. Flash builder??

[da4seen]

Hello,

I am trying to figure out which I should put most focus into. My  understanding which may be completely wrong is both can basically  accomplish the same thing using different methods...

If i want to create interactive interfaces which also contain  animations, which route would I go and does actionscript work the same  in each program?

I know the answer will vary based on who is answering, but if you knew  both programs what would cause you to choose one program over the other  for specific projects?

Thank you in advance for any and all replies

[moccamaximum]

As a rule of thumb you could say:if you want to do something "creative" you won`t get around Flash Professional.

Basically FlashBuilder lacks the timeline (thats in my opinion the most obvious differnce )

FlashBuilder is more of a programmers approach to Actionscript and I don`t think both programms can actually do the same: Flash Professional is a catastrophy when you want to handle large projects (with multiple co-workers) and Flash Builder is a pain when it comes to animations. Best of both worlds is of course: do your coding in FlashBuilder and your Designing in Flash. I found a good alternative to FlashBuilder in FlashDevelop, but there is really no Altrernative to Flash Professional.

[da4seen]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I am understanding a bit more than I previously did.

Quick additional question however. You say do my designing in flash and my coding in flashbuilder, does this mean I can easily switch back and fourth between programs? Like create my animations in flash then add functionality in flash builder ... or program functionality in flash builder and then switch to flash to add animations to the functionality?

If I was to design in flash and code in flashbuilder what would the workflow look like?

Thank you in advance!

[Guest]

Well, you can't do Round trip Editing between both frameworks. If you want to develop any application bigger than requires some animation, you will have a little problems doing it on Flash Builder, because is much hard than if you do it on Flash Professional.

Yeah, Flash Builder do not have a timeline, but have a design view. Flash Builder is for robust applications that you can't do on Flash Professional. If you create a class on actionscript and you want use it in two different projects, the first developed on FB and the second one on FL, the class will not work in the same way.

Greetings from a Flash Builder developer that sometimes develop on Flash Professional

[moccamaximum]

You say do my designing in flash and my coding in flashbuilder

It depends what you have in mind:

FB is usually overkill if you want to design a little PuzzleGame, or an Interactive Greeting Card etc. this can all be done in Flash alone.

Also it depends on how many people are involved in your project. Flash really sucks if you have are working in a team with more than 3-4 people.

Flashbuilder is much more stable than Flash.

does this mean I can easily switch back and fourth between programs?

you can switch back and forth, when you know what you are doing and bear in mind that not all functionalities overlap (FB: no timeline, no scenes, Flash:no MXML). But I would hardly call that easy.

Someone who has never used an IDE before will be easily get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of functionality FB offers, even experienced developers I know prefer some opensource tools like FlashDevelop which are for free, and can be expanded/enhanced based on your current skill-level.

If you are familiar with Adobe Products:

FB compares to Flash like After Effects to Premiere (in regard to complexity, learning curve etc.)

[sinious]

The previous reply was in early 2011 haha. I suppose better late than never?

To add in one more avenue, Flash Builder is built upon Eclipse. It should have been mentioned as an option. Eclipse with the FDT plugin is far superior to FlashDevelop (although I use all 3). It's a very usable and inexpensive solution.

I myself prefer as others have said, Flash Pro for factorizing objects and animation, Flash Builder to put it all together. Less efficient than Flex in overall project speed but far more device performance optimal when Stage3D is utilized.

[thomasv24609185]

i don't really understand mxml and css though. it reminds me of dreamweaver for application development. I prefer action script much more. In fact I really don't understand the usefulness of flash builder at all. The only thing that kind of sucks is sometimes people develop stuff that is supposed to be used in flash-builder that can't be run in flash pro. Also flash pro is missing components that builder has. like radio buttons/ check boxes/ scroll box..etc etc.

[Colin Holgate]

The initial question in this topic wasn't correct, at least based on the answers. It makes more sense if the question was whether to use Flash Pro or Flex. Flex is the thing that gives MXML and layout components, and it is well suited to making apps that are mostly forms and liquid layout pages. One small hitch is that after 2011 Adobe put Flex out to open source, and so you have to look to Apache for updates.

The other part of the question is where to do your coding. I choose to do all of that inside Flash Pro, and I petition Adobe to improve things there! A lot of people can't wait for Flash Pro to improve, and so use Eclipse with add-ons, or Flash Builder (which is Eclipse with a particular add-on) to do their coding.

There are still at least two options when you do use Flash Builder. You could make a SWC in Flash Pro and include that in a Flash Builder ActionScript or Mobile project, or you could work entirely in Flash Pro for the graphics, and set Flash Builder as the code editor in the Flash Pro preferences. That way you still get all the advantages of having Flash Pro for graphics and animations, but you get the fancy Eclipse features for the code editing.         

[somascope]

I'd recommedn, in order to find out what both programs are like, searching online (or YouTube) for videos about them. look for things like "intro to flash" or "intro to flash builder". It seems basic, I know, but for being a new comer to both programs, I think seeing some of the hundreds of videos that are out there could have some value.

I'm a Flash developer, and have very little experience with Flash Builder, so I'd be biased with saying "go with Flash". But, I do think it's a simple arropach that gives you a bit more design & animation freedom, and is easier to initially learner "the basics" compared to a professional development environment like Flash Builder.

Both will take time to learn. Flash Builder might "only" be a fairly easy thing to learn if you're already a developer who is familiar with other Eclipse-based programming environments and have experience with Object Oriented Programming.

If you want a basic interface with some basic functionality, Flash Builder seems more like a "swatting a mosquito with a canon" to me versus doing something similar in Flash Professional. But, again, I'm pretty biased, and others here could speak to Flash Builders defense I'm sure.