Flex Builder Plugin

Original on Live Space:Wed Jun 28 05:12:46 CST 2006

I'm working on a mushup mockup. (Isn't it cool?) And I am shocked with the power of Flash.
But the first steps are always difficult, below are some problems I encountered and my solution.

 

1. Download
I want to use some new tech in ActionScript 3.0. So the first step is to download and install Flex Builder 2.0 beta 3.
You can found it on Adobe site. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer9/

 

2. Installation
I already have Eclipse 3.1.2 on my PC. So I want to install Flex Builder plug-in and Flex SDK.

 

Tip 1: Flex installer conflicts with J2ME plugin eclipseME 1.2.1.
For some reason, the installer won't accept my Eclipse home directory and keep requesting "Eclipse 3.1 and up". I found it was caused by my J2ME plugin. If you install into a clean Eclipse 3.1.2, you get no complain at all.

 

Tip 2: Uninstall Flash Player before you install.
If you have Flash Player 8 installed, please uninstall it. Otherwise you might encounter "internal error" when debug Flex project. (not sure)
If you have Flash Player 9 installed, I suggest you uninstall it as well, you need a debug version which is included in the installer.

 

3. GO
The 1st time you start Eclipse after installed Flex Builder, you will be asked for register code, just press "Try".

 

4. Run your application
In Navigator view, right click your project -> Run as -> Flex Application. You will start your application.

If you encountered 'An internal error occurred during: "Launching"', and you might found the following info in your Eclipse log.

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.runtime 4 2 2006-06-28 10:38:12.843
!MESSAGE An internal error occurred during: "Launching".
!STACK 0
java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 5
 at java.lang.String.substring(Unknown Source)
 at flash.tools.debugger.DefaultDebuggerCallbacks.determineExeForType(DefaultDebuggerCallbacks.java:70)
 at flash.tools.debugger.DefaultDebuggerCallbacks.recomputeExeLocations(DefaultDebuggerCallbacks.java:50)
 at flash.tools.debugger.DefaultDebuggerCallbacks.getHttpExe(DefaultDebuggerCallbacks.java:31)

 

You can solve it in 2 ways.

Workaround: change your Run and Debug setting, the default Run setting for Flex application check "Use defaults" in "URL or path to launch".
The default setting launch a html. Change it to launch the swf file with the same same.

 

Solution: change the Eclipse setting.
I found my workaround failed when I want to debug an application which has to communicate within the Javascript and Flash ActionScript 3.0. This forced me to find a real solution.

 

And it was hidden in Eclipse Preference -> General -> Web Browser. By default, "Default system Web browser" is selected. Change it to "Internet Explorer". But I want to use FireFox, so I add it manually and it work fine.

Uhm, I'm feeling Lucky.

 

Tag: Flex Builder Eclipse