Flex Support Plug-in open sourcing

Permanently deleted user

Created March 02, 2009 06:43

Has JetBrains consider open sourcing the Flex Support plug-in? I've recently switched from Eclipse/Flex Builder and would like to contribute to the development of Flex/AS3 support in IDEA.

7 comments

Peter Jacobsen

Created March 02, 2009 09:47

+100
Excelllent idea, especially to speed up support for the upcoming Flex 4 Gumbo.

Regards,
Peter

Dmitry Jemerov

Created March 02, 2009 11:22

Hello Peter,

JetBrains should consider open sourcing the Flex Support plug-in. I've
recently switched from Eclipse/Flex Builder and would like to
contribute to the development of Flex/AS3 support in IDEA.

What exactly would you like to contribute?

Note that the majority of Flex functionality actually lives in the JavaScript
plugin, the source for which is available in the plugin development kit.

--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"

Peter Jacobsen

Created March 02, 2009 13:13

Hello Dmitry,

I am not talking about the AS3/JavaScript language features which are an essential part of the IDEA API. But it would be great to be able to customize how the Flex SDK is handled (MXML compiler, command line arguments, paths etc). During the last EAP I had a few discussions/misunderstandings with Maxim until the compile process and configuration dialogs were usable for me. For example I still have to use a second configuration xml file to compile my project as AIR application (switching manually between compiler xml files and/or adding custom command line arguments in the project settings) and also the code inspection when working with the AIR configuration has problems (probably because some AIR libraries are missing). It would also be convenient to target Flash Player 9/10 with a simple configuration switch. That kind of stuff.

Thanks and Regards,
Peter

Dmitry Jemerov

Created March 02, 2009 13:18

Hello Peter,

At the moment we have a developer working full time on this area of functionality
(Flex compilation, AIR support etc.) In situations like this it is usually
very hard to coordinate the work done internally with external contributions.

I am not talking about the AS3/JavaScript language features which are
an essential part of the IDEA API. But it would be great to be able to
customize how the Flex SDK is handled (MXML compiler, command line
arguments, paths etc). During the last EAP I had a few
discussions/misunderstandings with Ma
xim until the compile process and configuration dialogs were usable
for me. For example I still have to use a second configuration xml
file to compile my project as AIR application (switching manually
between compiler xml files and/or adding custom command line arguments
in the project settings) and
also the code inspection when working with the AIR configuration has
problems (probably because some AIR libraries are missing). It would
also be convenient to target Flash Player 9/10 with a simple
configuration switch. That kind of stuff.

--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"

Peter Jacobsen

Created March 02, 2009 13:32

Hello Dmitry,

I see the problem. It would be great, though, to have access to the source code of just the Flex plugin and customize it for myself - since I am trying to convince everybody I know using Flex Builder away to use IDEA :-)

Regards,
Peter

Permanently deleted user

Created March 02, 2009 18:27

I would contribute by addressing some of the already 100+ issues in JIRA. As well as the following.

Flex 4 Support
Ability to import Flex assets created in any of the CS4 applications
Support for creating Flex <mx:Module/> applications, with the IDE builder that automatically optimizes class dependency with -link-reports and -load-externs compiler arguments
Use of RSL, ability to export third-party linked SWCs
Compute digest for SWC
AIR support
Flex 4 CSS
Better support for working with SWC projects, ability to include and exclude specific classes via the project/module settings window
Integration with xUnit framework, such as ASTUce on Google Code
Improve the compiler and use of FCSH with additional enhanced coming in Flex 4

Regarding the problem of coordinating the changes, I do agree with you since there is only one full time developer on it. Taking a note from Adobe, the benefit of open sourcing the SDK clearly outweighs that and has help the adoption of the SDK.

Can the changes to the source be submitted by the community as patches/updates into a different branch and the engineers can choose which update to review and included into the next main branch for release?

I would imagine having additional developers/users will positively impact the development velocity for getting the plug-in up to par, if not exceed Flex Builder entirely.

~ Peter C

Permanently deleted user

Created July 27, 2009 21:59

Completely Agree.

Another important aspect to consider is Adobe's decision to scrap Flex Builder on Linux, thus making Idea the premier development platform on Linux for Flex and / or java-flex projects. We had moved to maintaining dual project structures with Idea and Eclipse when implementing Flex presentation layers, but are now looking to consolidate within Idea again. The integration of the Flex plugin within Idea is nice, hwoever, we are still experiencing issues that block real use of it when compared to Flex Builder.

Matt S.

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