Looking for an IDE to develop RIAs using Flex on your Linux boxes.... Herez hitting "Adobe Flex Builder Linux" (Alpha - an early release)... It has a Plugin installer to install into Eclipse 3.3 (Europa) release and requiring SUN JRE 1.5...
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Thursday, October 4, 2007
Adobe Flex Builder Linux - Whats in..
For developing RIAs on linux, Adobe has already announced its open source Flex SDK on linux by which users can create applications (example in either vi editor etc) and compile using a command-line in the terminal. At Max 2007, Adobe has announced a fruitful product to the linux geeks.. Yes, its Adobe Flex Builder Linux... Its an early alpha release available in Adobe Labs for Download.
So What does it have inside?
It has a large set of features derived from its Windows release (Flex builder 3 beta..It does not have all the features though!!) Let me walk through some of the major features which are in...Oh yes, that would be a good start point for developing RIAs on linux...
a) Project Creation Wizards (where you can create projects integrated with ASP .Net, J2EE, PHP, Coldfusion)..
b) Code Coloring, Code Hinting, Code Auto Completion, Code Folding..
c) Running applications..
d) Debugging applicatoins with various views like breakpoints, watch variables, stack view...
e) Support to create various Flex File types (MXML Application, MXML Component, MXML Module, CSS File, New Folder, Empty file etc.)
f) Find All References in project, workspace, etc.
g) Outline view which gives a complete tree structure of your code
h) Problems panel which reports compiler errors, warnings etc.
i) Project Properties, Configuring SWC folders, Add Library Projects as references, Build path..
j) Multiple SDK Configuration
k) Import and Export projects
l) Export to release version
m) Create Ajax-Bridge wrappers
n) Find, Replace...
o) Commenting code..
p) Navigating to the declaration (Open definition), Quick outline view, Open Resource...
q) Project Properties, Auto Build on, off, build all, clean project...
and a lot more....
What is not in....(with time and as we head towards the release these might get added..)..
a) Design View
b) Web Service Introspection
c) Coldfusion extensions for FB
d) Data Visualization components (not supported by default but you can port the .SWC from valid windows/mac machine on to linux and all will start working...)
e) Data Wizards
f) AIR Support
h) Refactoring
i) States View
j) Flex Profiling
Its supported on three flavors of Linux, RHEL WS 4, SUSE 10, Ubuntu 7.. SUN JRE 1.5 and Eclipse 3.3 is required on the machine. The Installer for flex builder is a plugin to Eclipse 3.3 which also installs debug version of flash player.... Read here for installation and get set go...
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Installing Flex Builder Linux Alpha
If you have downloaded Flex Builder linux alpha from the Adobe labs.. Here is how you can start with for the installation... Remember to read the release notes which also has some references to installation... Flex Builder linux alpha supports only Plugin installation into Eclipse 3.3 (Europa) release and is not available via a Standalone version installer. Please do have Eclipse 3.3 downloaded...
So what do you need to have...
a) One of the supported Linux Flavor (RHEL WS 4, SLES 10, Ubuntu).. If you want to try out a new distro then its not guaranteed that it will work pretty well 100% but yeah... it might work !! (may god help you...)
b) Have Sun JRE 1.5 Installed on your machine and get going as below... (It doesnt work with 1.4.x... it can work with 1.6 but not supported as of now... pretty early drop so is it...!!)
Installation steps for Flex Builder Linux Alpha in detail:
a) Download 32 Bit version of Eclipse 3.3 (downloaded from this location).
b) After you have un-tarred eclipse into some other location… say /home/arun/FBLinux/… You now have eclipse in /home/arun/FBLinux/eclipse/eclipse.exe
c) Without installing Flex builder Linux, ensure you can launch eclipse from your terminal using "./eclipse" (from that directory)..
d) Verify when asked for “workspace” choose new custom location for workspace (say /home/arun/FBLinux/eclipse/<NewWorkspaceDirectory>/)
e) Verify eclipse launches fine without any problem and you see the “Welcome page” (of eclipse)
f) Open your terminal
g) Type “java –version” and check what is the version of JRE you are running. Lets try to install JRE 1.5 (if you have a latest than this or earlier than this)
h) Please try installing JRE 1.5 from this location. Please find “Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 Update 12” click on the Download button related to this.. Click on “Accept license”… Download the file “Linux Self-extracting file” (jre-1_5_0_12-linux-i586.bin)… Use “sh jre-1.5xx.bin”) to start installing this new JRE to a folder (say on your desktop… example: /home/arun/Desktop/jre-1.5.0.12/ directory).. It should be 32 bit version if you are not downloading from what is told here..
i) Use the command “export PATH=/home/arun/Desktop/jre-1.5.0.12/bin:$PATH” (which sets the jre bin path priority to any other path on your machine).
j) Echo $PATH, verify you see “/home/arun/Desktop/jre-1.5.0.12/bin” in the beginning of any other path.
k) Type “java –version” and verify it shows 1.5 version from Sun Microsystems.
l) Now navigate to /home/arun/FBLinux/eclipse/ directory
m) Use ./eclipse and launch eclipse now. Verify it launches eclipse fine. Open your Window->Preferences->Java->Installed JRE and verify it uses JRE 1.5 as you installed above. If its not present, please add this in the list and make it default.
n) I assume you have downloaded flexbuilder_linux_install_a1_100207.bin (downloaded installer file with this sort of name) into directory say /home/arun/downloads/ location
o) Staying/Being in the same terminal, navigate to /home/arun/downloads/ location and use ‘sh flexbuilder_linux_install_a1_100207.bin”
p) Installer should launch now with a splash screen showing "Flex Builder Linux" and shows you a UI for installation...
q) Accept the EULA
r) Choose the location where you would want to install (Adobe_Flex_Builder_Alpha) – Say create a directory as here - /home/arun/FBLinux/Adobe_Flex_Builder_Alpha/
s) Choose the eclipse installed location directory (say /home/arun/FBLinux/eclipse directory)
t) Choose to install Flash player plugin that is provided with the installer (keep the check box checked.. don’t uncheck it)... This is a debug version of flash player browser plugin that is required for debugging flex applications from with-in the IDE..
u) Proceed with installation and Click finish in the Install
v) Now in the same terminal.
w) Navigate to the directory (ex: /home/arun/FBLinux/Adobe_Flex_Builder_Alpha/ directory). You will see a script named “Adobe_Flex_builder.sh”..
x) Use ‘sh Adobe_Flex_builder.sh’ and verify it launches eclipse fine.
Later on keep using the "Adobe_Flex_builder.sh" to launch Flex builder again after exiting... Read the release notes on what it does !! Happy RIA Dev on linux..
Keep me posted if you find any issues.
Flex Builder Linux - Unveiled
Time for all those linux geeks intending for an RIA development using Flex... Flex Builder Linux is launched in the Adobe Labs.... Its an Alpha release of the product.... Time for linux junta to have hands-on working on their development of flex apps using this IDE.
I shall walk you all with my experiences of the same as i go on describing more about it...
I shall walk you all with my experiences of the same as i go on describing more about it...
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