In this post I’ll explain in an easy step by step tutorial how to install Apache Flex 4.8.0 in Flash Builder, I know that it’s not rocket science but maybe newbie developers could need more information to start play with new SDK.
The new SDK is more or less the same of 4.6 but under Apache flag, like you can read at Spoon website, but we hope people behind the project could give us new opportunities for our RIAs and Mobile projects.
So let’s start!
First of all download Apache Flex 4.8.0 binaries for your operating system (in my case OS X), keep attention, you need the binaries release not the source one.
After unzip the downloaded file create a folder called 4.8.0 in /Applications/Flash Builder 4.5/sdks
Then download playerglobal.swc for Flash Player 11 on Adobe website.
Save it in /Applications/Adobe Flash Builder 4.5/sdks/4.8.0/frameworks/libs (it could be better create a folder called “player” or as you want, in my case I use “11.1” and save the swc inside).
Finally, open Terminal navigate trough your folders and position it to this location /Applications/Adobe Flash Builder 4.5/sdks/4.8.0/frameworks then launch this ANT command:
ant thirdparty-downloads
After 10 minutes you will download everything:
. OMSF dependencies
. TLF framework
. Flex 4.6 SDK and so on
Last but not least, in Flex 4.8 SDK folder you will find a env-template.properties, you have to duplicate the file, call env.properties and set the right path for each folder:
env.AIR_HOME= path to AIR SDK on your filesystem
env.FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER = path to Flash Player Debugger, if you have Flash Pro installed you can find a version in Players/Debug/Flash Player Debugger
env.PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME= path to playerglobal.swc (it’s not an absolute path, it’s relative and starts from frameworks folder in Flex SDK!!!)
env.PIXELBENDER_HOME= path to Pixel Bender Toolkit 2 (it’s not important to set if you don’t use it)
env.ADOBE_EXTENSION_MANAGER= path to Adobe Extension Manager
Remember that in template file you can read an accurate explanation on how to set those environment variables
Then you can start to enjoy the new Flex SDK.
The team behind Flex in Apache is working on a new AIR application that will help you to install in Flash Builder the SDK but it’s not released yet… we hope to have it soon, in the meanwhile I hope this tutorial could help you to set your IDE.There is another way to install the SDK trough an AIR app that you can download from here: http://people.apache.org/~bigosmallm/installapacheflex/
If I forgot some steps in my description please comment to this post to help everybody to enjoy Apache Flex, thank you in advance.
lucamezzalira.com 