Powerflasher FDT – Flash/Flex Development Environment Blog

Hey folks,

as pronounced in the former post, we just finished the integration of the FDT World Roadshow Prelude 2008 Website into this blog. From now on, we will steadily update the contents as we get new findings and results in planning and organization every day. 

The most important facts you should know are:

• The event will take place in Boston on october 7th, 2008 (time and location will be published very soon)
• Registration will start on wednesday, september 24th, 2008
• First 30 attendees who sign up will receive a free copy of FDT 3.1 Basic when attending. Hurry up!
• Speakers like André Michelle and Marcel Fahle confirmed
• Beside the sessions and workshops, there will be an evening event to meet your desire for fun and pleasure

More information to find on the website itself.

Cheers,

Christopher

Hi folks,

we were recently informed that the 3-day conference “Flash on Tap” in Boston is “postponed”. As we were sponsoring this event, we were really sad to hear about this!

We were intending to officially launch our 3.1 version on this event, speak about our MXML-plans, and wanted to use the conference as a “kick-off” event for a roadshow around the globe. First we thought of not going to Boston at all, but now we changed plans again:

The FDT Team is coming to Boston, and we will host an “event to remember”!! Stay tuned as we are still in the planning process of setting things up. We will let you know in the next few days what is going to happen, where, who is part of it etc…

We will present a webpage with all necessary info and dates very soon!

cheers,
Frank

We have just released a new version of FDT (FDT 3.1.0 build 1011) which includes many new features and numerous bugfixes. You can find a list of all additional features and bugfixes here. In this article I’m going to show you how to improve and optimize your ActionScript development workflow by using the new features.

Installation

We now provide FDT installers for Windows and Max OS X. Simply download the appropriate installer and follow the installation instructions.
The FDT 3.1 installation includes Eclipse 3.3 (Europe) and the most important plug-ins for ActionScript development like Subversion (Subversive) and a XML Editor (WST).

If you already have installed Eclipse (3.3 or 3.4), you can use the “Find and Install” mechanism (Help > Software Updates > Find and Install) to integrate FDT in your existing Eclipse copy. Use the following URL for your new remote site: http://fdt.powerflasher.com/update

The Flex SDK 3.1 is included in both installation types and all core library settings are now configured automatically. This means that you can compile, debug and launch your ActionScript 3 projects immediately after the installation process.

Installing and setting up FDT 3.1 is now way faster than setting up previous versions of FDT.

Project Structure

It is very important to use a clear and continuous folder structure for your ActionScript projects. FDT helps you organize this structure.

If you create a new Flash Project it’s now possible to select “Create separate folders for sources and binaries” in the wizard.

You can configure those folders by pressing “Configure defaults…” or by opening the FDT Build Path preferences window.

In the following example I will use dev/src as my source folder and dev/deploy as my output folder.

FDT will automatically put all SWF and SWC files into the deploy folder.

AIR Support

Developing AIR applications with FDT 3.1 is also very easy now. Simply create a launcher for viewing and debugging your application and one launcher to release it as .air file.

To create an AIR debug launch configuration select your Document Class in the Flash Explorer and then open the Run Dialog (Run > Open Run Dialog…). Double click “FDT AS3 Application “ to create a new launch configuration. After that select the “Start” tab and choose “AIR Debug Launcher” as viewer.

Press the “Run“ button to compile and launch your AIR application. FDT automatically generates a default application XML file into your output folder.

To release and package your AIR application open the Run Dialog and double click “FDT AIR Application Release” and configure the settings on the right-hand side.

Michael Plank

Hi folks,

we have fixed the few bugs, tested it a thousand times and now we have done it: we released the new 3.1 version of FDT!!!!

You can download the new installer now from our website. There are really some nice new features. Also we fixed a lot of things you reported, so thank you for that!! Here are the additional features of the new version:

• Shipped Flex SDK 3.1
• Default Source Folder is created with a new project
• You can now define a “Standard Output Folder” per project, where generated SWF files from the launcher are generated by default
• FDT Intro Contribution
• FDT Cheat Sheets
• AIR Debug Launcher as SWF Viewer
• AIR Release Launcher
• SWC Outline view
• QuickTrace (Ctrl+0/Command+0)
• Launchers can now be started by selecting an editor or a file and pressing “Run” or “Debug”
• New Launch Shortcut for AS3 Libraries (Run Project as AS3 Library)
• User Documentation is updated for FDT 3.1
• Better sorting of the autocompletion proposals
• Better autocompletion behaviour after “new”, “extends” and “implements”

Here you can find a complete buglist that we fixed in this version: buglist

Check it out and tell us what you think!!

Cheers,

Frank

Hi Folks,

here you find an interesting article about the usage of a Preloader, written on the blog of our friend Sascha Wolter:

ActionScript 3 Preloader mit Framefactory

It´s in german, but still very useful.

And here is another interesting comment on our new standalone version:

FDT 3.0 Now Standalone!

We are still keen on your Feedback for our new FDT 3.1 Beta Version. Tell us what you think!!!

Cheers,

Frank