getting dirty with the flex sdk

Getting DirtyWith the Flex SDKNate Beck

Senior Adobe Developer at T-Mobile USA

& Co-Founder of BugQuash.com

Flex is Open SourceSo What?

We get to make a great product even better.

We have the ability to submit our own fixes.

Collaboration is key for a successful platform.

So, Flex is Open Source

What’s in it for me?

As I’ve already said, Open Source is a good thing. But there are some other reasons why you should get involved.

Bragging Rights!

Know the Flex SDK better than 90% of every other Flex Developer out there.

Free Stuff! The Flex Team will buy you an Adobe related book for every 3 patches that are accepted.

What this talk is about

The tools and processes that are used for development of the Flex SDK.

Tips and tricks that will make your life easier.

And hopefully, a quick demo.

What this talk isn’t about

In-depth Operating System specific setup (with the exception of some tips).

OpenSource.Adobe.com/flex has excellent resources for your specific OS.

Where to start

Adobe’s Open Source Website (http://opensource.adobe.com/flex)

Select “Developer Documentation” under the Flex SDK Project. Then select “Set up your development environment”.

Tip -- There are links near the bottom of this page for your specific operating system.

What you’ll needSubversion (command-line or a GUI)

Apache Ant

Java 2 Software Development Kit

Configure your Flash Player

Configure your operating system (Adobe provides a script to take care of this)

Cygwin (if you’re on Windows, read the Windows specific setup)

Wow Nate, that’s a lot.

It’s not as hard as it seems.

You only need to set this up once on your development machine.

Let’s dive in.

SubversionSubversion (commonly known as SVN) is an open-source version control system.

There are two ways you can work with subversion:

You can use the command-line tool.

You can use a GUI.

SmartSVN (mac) || TortiseSVN (win) are good options.

TIP -- Adobe’s OpenSource site assumes you are using command-line. So we’ll use that in this talk.

Ant (Another Neat Tool)

Apache Ant is a software tool for automating software build processes. It is similar to make but is implemented using the Java language.

Therefore, it requires the Java platform.

Ant uses “build files” to automate compilation of the Flex SDK.

Java 2 Software Development Kit

Tip -- Windows users need to follow the Windows instructions carefully. The Flex SDK build script assumes that the Java JDK is installed in a very specific directory.

Tip -- On Mac OS X, Just run Software Update. This ensures that you have the latest Java binaries. Thanks Apple.

Okay, I think I’m good to go.

Great! Let’s double check our setup. Open up your command-line. Terminal on Mac, Cygwin on Windows.

ant -version

svn --version

java -version

echo $JAVA_HOME (echo %JAVA_HOME% on Windows)

Sweet... now what?

If that worked, pat yourself on the back and get a drink... because we’re just getting started.

I’ll wait.

Time to check out... the code that is.

Getting the Source Code

Head back to Adobe’s Open Source Flex site(http://opensource.adobe.com/flex)

Select “Source” under the Flex SDK Project.

TIP -- Use the Flex project skeleton provided on this page so you don’t have to check out EVERYTHING.

TIP -- Using the “svn up” command will allow you to select which directories and files you want to download.

Finding bugs to quash...(If you don’t have your own)

“Software is by its nature an imperfect science and often small defects exist. With enough eyes, bugs are much easier to see, understand, and eliminate.”

-- Ted Patrick, Adobe

Sign up for Adobe’s Bug System (JIRA)

Go to Adobe’s Bug website: http://bugs.adobe.com/flex/

Register if you haven’t already.

This is the site where users come to submit bugs against the Flex SDK.

This is also the site we use to find relevant bugs for us to work on.

On the hunt for a bug

If you don’t have a “pet” bug in mind already that you want to work on, you can find one in the Adobe Bug system.

TIP -- The bug system has a special milestone called “SDK Community Bug Fix Candidates”. There are bugs that the Flex Team specifically has asked the community to fix (http://bit.ly/aEEfa).

Become a contributor

Before you can submit a patch, you must become a contributor.

It’s easy, just fill it out and send it in (but, read it first of course). Once submitted you will have a new link when you are logged in to Adobe’s Bug System (JIRA) called... Submit Patch.

Another perk to being a contributor is you get a sandbox to play in.

Time to get dirty...Ninja-style

Setting up Flex Flash Builder

The Flex SDK Team has been very kind to us... they have given us all that we need to use Flash Builder to develop the SDK.

TIP -- When using Flash Builder to develop on the SDK, remember to add a Linked Resource for “FLEX_SDK”.

TIP -- If you run into problems when switching between different versions of the SDK, make sure your Linked Resource setting is correct.

The Woot Label

Demo

Set Environment Variables

The SDK has scripts that will automatically set your environment’s variables.

Change to the version of the SDK you are working with... (ex. 3.x or trunk) and run:

source setup.sh

TIP -- On Windows, you should be running this command from Cygwin.(more info here: http://bit.ly/1aNlDp)

Configure Flash Player

Follow the steps found on the Open Source site (under Configure Flash Player on http://bit.ly/1aNlDp) to:

Make changes to or create mm.cfg if it doesn’t exist.

Download FlexSDK.cfg into FlashPlayerTrust.

TIP -- If you run into SecurityErrors you may need to add more paths to the FlexSDK.cfg file. I had to add /flex/sdk/branches/3.x and /flex/sdk/trunk.

Testing The Fix

The Flex SDK team has an automation tool called “Mustella” which they use to test the SDK.

To run the check-in tests from command-line, change to the version you are working on and run:

ant checkintests

Creating The Patch

svn status

svn diff Label.as > patch_wootLabel.diff

Where to go from hereAdditional Resources

OpenSource.Adobe.com

Be sure to spend some time looking around this site. It has almost all the information you could ever want about the Flex SDK... including:

Detailed Setup Instructions

Coding Conventions

In-Depth Specs and Whitepapers

Bug Quashes are fast paced, high energy events. With food and drinks, good music, lots of code and breaking things. Good times to be had.

Created by Nate Beck, Marty Mickelson & Mike Johnson

The next BugQuash event is being planned right now, the date is currently being determined.

http://www.bugquash.com

Show off with the BugQuash badges

Automatically updated

Available at http://www.bugquash.com

Thanks!

Now get out there, and do some good!

These slides and this recording will be posted on my blog at:

http://blog.natebeck.net

Questions?