Compiling ASDT from CVS

I was bored and wanted to check out the latest ASDT features / fixes, so I downloaded the ASDT source files from CVS and figured out how to compile them for use in Eclipse. I put together a Camtasia Studio video tutorial of the whole procedure which can be cound via the link below. It’s actually quite an easy process, though I did get bogged down for a few minutes trying to download all of the views into a single project before realizing the error of my way. Enjoy!

Compile ASDT video tutorial.

Changes

It’s been a while since I was able to make a post and just wanted to throw out a personal update. I made a career move in late September leaving SkyWest Airlines and the development of Flash based eLearning modules to join TechSmith Corporation as their Senior Flash Developer. Specifically, I am a member of the Camtasia Studio development team and will be working on all assistive Flash applications for Camtasia Studio’s flv and swf output. The team at TechSmith is very motivated to improve our Flash support and so we’d love to hear your input (I’ll forward any comments on to the appropriate parties).

The new job also meant selling my house, moving back to midwest (Lansing, MI area), and getting jerked around by moving companies (never use North American Van Lines if you have a choice). Hopefully, the dust has settled and I’ll be able to make posts a bit more regularly (I’m currently at MAX and will post some info on some of the more interesting sessions when I get a chance).

Hacking Mike Chamber’s Flash Resource Manager to use Flash 8 Help Docs

After downloading and installing Flash 8 today, I found myself in a serious crisis — Mike Chambers Flash Resource Manager has become an indispensable part of my daily workflow and I couldn’t access Flash 8 help through it. Knowing a busy Mike was unlikely to provide an update in a timely fashion (read today) , I did what any developer would do–I decided to “help myself”.

After quickly peering at the install folder I found an easy solution:

1. Open the file app.config in Notepad or Wordpad (found along this path in Windows — C:\Program Files\Flash Resource Manager\config\app.config).
2. Change the following 3 lines to reflect the paths created by your Flash 8 install:

• <flashhowtodirpath>C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash 8\en\Configuration\HelpPanel\HowDoI</FlashHowtoDirPath>
• <userhelpdirpath>C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash 8\en\Configuration\HelpPanel\Help\</userhelpdirpath>
• <flashhelpdirpath>C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash 8\en\Configuration\HelpPanel\Help\</flashhelpdirpath>

3. Save the file.
4. Relaunch Flash Resource Manager

That’s it! You should now see the Flash Help docs in the tree view and continue to have tabbed help available to assist your coding endeavors.

Shout Out to the Victims of Katrina Along the US Gulf Coast

I just wanted to quickly give a shout out to everyone along the Gulf Coast of the US which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina–our thoughts are with you. There hasn’t been much noise in the Flash world, but I encourage everyone stick their heads up out of the weeds long enough to appreciate the magnitude of this natural disaster. At least one well know Flasher, Greg Wygonik has potentially lost his house and is currently displaced and I’m sure there are others who need our help. Please do what you can by donating to a charity such as the American Red Cross or reaching out in any way you can.

Test Drive: ASDT .8 Preview Release

I finally got around to setting up my Eclipse environmet using the new ASDT .8 plugin auto-update feature. There are a few gotchas which I stumbled upon along the way, so I decided to create a captivate tutorial covering installation, configuration and use in addition to the outline that follows:

ASDT .8 auto update, configuration and use tutorial.

1. Make sure you remove the old ASDT plugin from the Eclipse plugins directory prior to installing the update. Things definately don’t work right if you don’t take this step.
2. I’m probably a bit paranoid, but after uninstalling the old ASDT 7.1 plugin I closed eclipse and launched it again from the command line with the -clean parameter. I also did the same thing after successfully installing the plugin…I’m not certain it “cleans” anything, but it can’t hurt.
3. After running the plugin update and installing, you’ll notice a few new things:
   • There is now a full blown ActionScript perspective.
   • The configuration of the editor is slightly different.
   • There is no longer an MTASC view available.
   • There is a new AS Logger view.
4. I was a bit perplexed by the lack of an MTASC view, but after a few minutes of reflection I guessed that ultimately the ASDT boys are looking to parallel their plugin to what is available for Java. The Java editor spits out error messages to the standard Eclipse Console view and, sure enough, all I had to do in order to get my MTASC compiler messages back was open up the Eclipse Console view (make sure you have the ASDT editor configured to use MTASC as its compiler and that you have selected the “Check Syntax on Save” and “Check syntax when an AS file is opened” check boxes).
5. I’m not certain, to date, how the ASLogger functions. There seems to be no way to configure it at this point and our comrades in arms on the OSFlash mailing list are all asking the same question. Hopefully, when the .8 release is “official” we’ll hear a bit more about this.

Overall, things look to be shaping up nicely with ASDT. There are still bugs and many features I’d like to see implemented, but the open-source team is doing admirable work and certainly have my heartfelt appreciation–Nice work guys.

Connecting to CVS & SVN Repositories with Eclipse – Eclipse for Flash Dummies Series

I’m sure this is old hat for all the “real” developers in the Flash community, but I recently began exploring downloading source files from CVS and Subversion using Eclipse. CVS and Subversion are version control repositories which allow you to track the history of source files. They are especially useful for teams where multiple developers may be working on projects at the same time. However, with the explosion of the OSFlash movement it is now necessary for Flash developers to understand how to download the source files for the various projects exposed on the OSFlash Wiki which do not provide binaries (executables or installers).

The process for using both CVS and Subversion with Eclipse is similar, however Subversion requires an additional plugin, Subclipse, while CVS is a native part of Eclipse. I’ve provided captivate tutorials on how to connect to both repository types and create projects based on them below (as an added plus, if you’ve ever wanted to download and compile the source for your favorite Apache products you should now be armed with the capability to do so).

Connecting to a CVS repository tutorial

Setup Subclipse and connect to a Subversion repository tutorial

Enjoy!