Enabling Flash Builder 4 or Flex Builder to access Flex Mobile SDKs

You don't necessarily need to have the latest version of Flash Builder to write applications for Android. This recipe will demonstrate how to integrate the latest Flex SDK into an older version of Flash Builder (or even Flex Builder) to take advantage of the mobile framework improvements.

Note

Even though we will be able to use the new component sets and streamlined structure for Android, many of the workflow enhancements such as support for a new mobile application view structure, optimized component skins with touch and gesture support, and other niceties found in newer versions of Flash Builder simply will not exist and we will have to compile the application for distribution using the AIR SDK and command line tools.

How to do it…

The following steps are used for getting an older version of Flash Builder configured for Android development:

  1. Visit the Adobe Open Source website at http://opensource.adobe.com/ and locate the latest build of the Flex SDK.
  2. Download a ZIP file of the latest Adobe Flex SDK and extract it to a hard drive to a location you will remember. For instance, C:\SDKs\Flex.
  3. Launch Flash Builder and go to Window | Preferences.
  4. Scroll down the Flash Builder menu item and select Installed Flex SDKs. You will now see a list of each of the SDKs currently available in your copy of Flash Builder:
  5. Click the button labeled Add… and browse to the location of the Flex SDK you recently downloaded.
  6. Provide the dialog with a meaningful name and click OK. For example, Flex 4.5. If we want to be very specific, we can always name it the full build name, such as: Flex 4.5.0.16076.
  7. The Flex 4.5 SDK will now be available for use in your application. To use it in a project, simply select this SDK when creating a new project or when modifying the Flex Compiler properties in an existing project.

How it works…

Using a more recent version of the Flex SDK within Flash Builder allows us access to the mobile theming options and other specific APIs not available in previous SDK releases. This will also expose mobile classes to code hinting and other IDE workflow constructs.

There's more…

If changing the Flex SDK version to be used in a project, we may receive a number of warnings or errors due to changes in the framework from version to version. Simply go through the project files and correct each warning or error that appears within the Problems panel to correct any issues.

If developing projects that target Flash Player on Android, you simply need to be mindful of device and operating system constraints.

See also…

It is important to note that versions of Flash Builder prior to Flash Builder 4.5 will not include the ability to compile projects to .APK (the Android application file extension) and you will need to compile your project using the freely available AIR SDK. See Chapter 11, for information on how to do this.

It is also worth a mention that while you can develop your applications for Android using older versions of Flash Builder, you will not receive many of the benefits provided by a newer release, such as code completion.

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