ADOBE® FLEX® BUILDER™ 3: USING ADOBE FLEX BUILDER 3

ADOBE FLEX BUILDER 3

Using Adobe Flex Builder 3

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Max Iterations When Building With Cycles If your projects contain cyclic references (something you should

avoid), you can set the number of build attempts so that the compiler can properly build all the projects. The

default maximum number of iterations is 10.

2 Modify the build order as needed, and click OK.

Customizing builds with Apache Ant

By creating a custom builder, you can modify and extend the standard build process. Flex Builder contains a standard

build script that is used to compile your applications. If needed, you can create custom build scripts using Apache

Ant, which is an open-source Java-based build tool.

While developing Ant build scripts is beyond the scope of this guide, this topic shows you how to create and apply a

custom builder to your projects.

You can apply custom builders to all the Flex Builder project types.

Create a builder

1 In the Flex Navigator view, select a project and then right-click (Control-click on Macintosh) to display the

context menu and select Properties.

2 Select the Builders properties page. If you’re using other Eclipse plug-ins, there may be more than one builder

listed. Flex Builder provides a builder named Flex, which you cannot modify.

3 Select New.

4 In the Choose Configuration Type dialog box, select the appropriate configuration type. Flex Builder supports

the program type. Select it and click OK to continue. From the new builder properties page you define the builder

properties and reference the Ant script (an XML file).

5 Click OK to apply it to the project.

Detailed information about working with Ant build scripts can be found in the Eclipse documentation, which is

available at http://help.eclipse.org/help31/index.jsp.

Using multiple SDKs in Flex Builder

Flex Builder lets you change the version of the SDK that you use to compile your projects. You can select the SDK

when you first create a project or at any time you are working on a project.

The combination of a framework and the compiler make up the SDK. If you select the Flex 2.0.1 SDK, then you are

using the 2.0.1 version of the Flex framework SWC files, and the 2.0.1 version of the Flex compiler. You cannot use,

for example, the Flex 3 compiler with the Flex 2.0.1 framework SWC files.

Using a different SDK can be useful if you are given a project that was developed using Flex Builder 2.0.1 (which uses

the Flex 2.0.1 SDK), but you are running Flex Builder 3 (which uses the Flex 3 SDK by default). By selecting an older

SDK to build with, you can maintain projects that have not been updated to be compatible with the latest version of

the SDK. In addition, if you are currently working on a project for the Flex 2.0.1 SDK, but want to use the Flex Builder

3 features such as code refactoring, you can upgrade your edition of Flex Builder, but then select the older SDK as

the default SDK.

If you develop a project and then change the SDK, Flex Builder performs a full rebuild, not an incremental build. As

a result, Flex Builder flags any differences that would throw compiler errors as if the project had been developed

under the original SDK. For example, if you use an AdvancedDataGrid component in your project (which was first

introduced in the Flex 3 SDK), but then change the project to use the 2.0.1 SDK, Flex Builder will notify you that the

AdvancedDataGrid class is unknown.