Programming Flex 3

Building Applications

Once you’ve created a project and written some code, you’ll want to build the project, which means compiling it and deploying it. How you accomplish these tasks depends, in part, on what tools you’re using. The following sections discuss how to compile using the mxmlc compiler. If you’re using Flex Builder, you may want to skip directly to Compiling Using Flex Builder” later in this chapter, although it is always good to know about mxmlc, especially if you intend to use Ant or any build tool.

Compiling Using mxmlc

The mxmlc compiler is used to compile Flex applications (versus compc, which is used to compile components and libraries). When you use Flex Builder to compile, it automatically calls mxmlc (Flex Builder includes the SDK).

There are several ways you can use mxmlc, including from the command line, from a .bat or shell script, from an IDE, and from Apache Ant. Initially, we’ll look at using mxmlc from the command line since it’s the most basic way to use the compiler (though we’ll also look at using the compiler via Apache Ant later in this chapter). The compiler flags we’ll look at from the command line also apply to any other use of the compiler.

Configuring for Windows

When you want to work with mxmlc from the command line, it’s generally a good idea to make sure you add it to your system path. If you’re running Windows and you’re uncertain how to edit your system path, follow these steps:

1. Right-click My Computer from the desktop or from the Start menu, ...