Edit and Compile AS3/Flex for FREE!

Having exhausted my supply of free trials of Flash CS3 and Flex Builder, I managed to work out how to attach the latest Flex 3 compiler to FlashDevelop. Editing AS3 in Flash Develop is as good as the Flex Builder's text editor in Eclipse. It does all the imports and the predictive typing drills into classes perfectly (including your own). MXML is not that good but can still be compiled by the Flex 3 compiler. In Flash develop you can choose between an AS3 project and an Flex (MXML) project, either of them can be compiled.

Setting it up

These instructions are for the Flex 3 beta version (Moxie), the links to the Flex download will probably change once Flex 3 is fully released.

For this you will need to download:

• FlashDevelop
  
• Flex 3 SDK
  

1. Install the latest version of FlashDevelop
2. Unzip the SDK to C:\Program Files\FlashDevelop\Flex3SDK
3. Launch FlashDevelop
4. Go to Tools -> Program Settings -> Plugins -> AS3Context -> Settings.
5. Set "Flex2SDK Location" to "C:\Program Files\FlashDevelop\Flex3SDK"

To test do the following:

1. Go to Project -> New Project
2. Select "ActionScript 3 - Default Project"
3. Set the Name as "Test" and select your Location and click OK
4. Project -> Test Movie
5. You should see a new blank screen named Test.swf

As it' a .NET application it works only on a Windows PC. However, there are reports on the FlashDevelop messageboard that it also works fine on Intel based Macs.