Automating ActionScript Projects with Eclipse and Ant

SVN in Eclipse

Subversion in Eclipse can be handled via a plug-in called Subclipse. Just like when we installed FDT, we need to install Subclipse through an update site. Go to Help→Install Software and enter this address: http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.6.x/.

This will give you a bunch of options; check all of them and then click Next. You will probably be presented with a dialog box about unsigned software, but you can ignore this warning and proceed. After everything is installed, you’ll be prompted to restart Eclipse.

If Eclipse is fully up and running, let’s add a repository to our workspace. This assumes you are using a repository. If you’re not, no problem; there are dozens of sites online that offer cheap or free SVN access where you can store your files. Open source developers can use Google Code or GitHub. However, most shops have their own SVN servers, either internally or externally hosted. If you don’t, you should probably have a chat with someone at your shop about getting one. It is a crucial element for working with teams.

But for demonstration purposes, let’s assume you have a server and we are going to connect to it. As an example, let’s take an open source project: AS3 PLS Reader, a tool I created to read playlist files from streaming radio servers and play them in Flash. The project URL is http://code.google.com/p/as3plsreader/, and the SVN checkout URL is http://as3plsreader.googlecode.com/svn/. You don’t have write access to this project, but the operations ...