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

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Chapter 4: Working with Projects

Adobe Flex Builder lets you create, manage, package, and distribute projects for building web and desktop applica-

tions. When you generate shared component library (SWC) files, you can share components and other resources

between applications or with other developers. You can also work with different versions of the Adobe Flex SDK

directly in Flex Builder.

To p ic s

About Flex Builder projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Creating Flex projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Managing projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Managing project resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

About ActionScript projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

About library projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

About Flex Builder projects

Flex Builder uses a traditional approach to software development: grouping the resources (folders and files) that

constitute an application into a container called a project. A project contains a set of properties that control how the

application is built, where the built application resides, how debugging is handled, and the relationships to other

projects in the workspace.

To manage projects, you use the Flex Navigator view, which lets you add, edit, and delete resources. You can also close

projects within a workspace, import resources, and link to external resources.

In addition to Flex projects, Flex Builder provides a basic project type called an ActionScript project. Using an Action-

Script project, you can code and debug ActionScript applications that directly access the Adobe Flash Player APIs

and are compiled into SWF files. ActionScript projects do not use the Flex framework or MXML language.

Flex and ActionScript applications

Using Flex Builder, you can create Flex and ActionScript applications. You compile Flex applications into stand-

alone SWF files. For more information, see “Working with Projects” on page 27 and “About ActionScript projects”

on page 44.

Adobe AIR applications

With Flex Builder you can debug, package, and manage AIR projects. Flex Builder enables you to run Flex applica-

tions in AIR. You create AIR projects by using the New Flex Project wizard. Use the Export Release Build feature to

generate a release-quality, installable AIR package. For more information, see Developing AIR Applications with

Adobe Flex 3.

The Adobe AIR Marketplace is a place where AIR developers can publish AIR applications for users to download.

To find the Marketplace, go to http://www.adobe.com/go/marketplace. If you have questions on the Adobe AIR

Marketplace, go to http://www.adobe.com/go/marketplace_faq.