Is it possible to have FlexUnit 4.1 in IntelliJ with project set up as Pure AS3 which meens no Flex Runner.
What I get is an error
Error #1065: Variable mx.core::FlexVersion is not defined.
ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable mx.core::FlexVersion is not defined.
But if I uncheck the Pure AS3 from module setting everything works.
The reason why I check pure AS3 is that I dont get Flex completion, and possible there are reasons that I still dont know.
I assume your inspiration is running it on a continuous integration system like Hudson, Bamboo, or TeamCity.
You need a windowing environment, but there are some workarounds to provide one.
Look at this FlexUnit Wiki:
http://docs.flexunit.org/index.php?title=Continuous_Integration_Support
Makes sense. There are quite a few flex libs that get left out if you go with the pure actionscript option.
You pretty much miss out on anything you might have wanted from spark and a number of the classes that leverage mxml approaches to the visual side.
By now I'm guessing you have already researched and found the classes you were missing and wrapped the code to not use them, but perhaps someone else clawing out their eyes will appreciate knowing there is a fairly big difference in what IntelliJ excludes when you toggle to "pure actionscript".
Of course the AS3 documentation won't really cover that AFAIK because the intent is that you will use both mxml and AS.
I ran into the same problem in a pure AS3 environment. Adding:
-define+=CONFIG::useFlexClasses,false
in the module's compiler options and commenting out flex classes that might be imported worked for me.
There might be a thrown error for mx.core.FlexVersion and so I just commented those lines out.
Related
I am very new to Alchemy and not an expert in using swc to store code(Although I am well aware that it worked for me so far). I want to make sure I understand if Alchemy is the right tool for me in this situation.
I want to make a simple script in Alchemy to help make certain 'heavy lifting' in the code lighter and less time consuming and ooze out more performance. The trick is that my colleagues will likely be daunted by the installation process(even though there is a guide). So my question is, if I do take the time to work with Alchemey, can I make my code available to other people that do not use it, for our project?
Hope that makes sense, my instincts (gut feeling) says yes. I simply want to make sure.
Yes, this is exactly what SWCs are for, you can compile your C++ code with FlasCC and expose a simple AS3 API that other people can use by linking your SWC into their project. Download the FlasCC beta and check out the tutorials it comes with that explain this in more detail: http://gaming.adobe.com/technologies/flascc/
Shortly, the answer is yes.
The point is you can't recompile the SWC into an SWF if you don't use alchemy. What you can do, is download at runtime (using Loader.load with ApplicationDomain.currentDomain) the SWF contained into the SWF (SWC is a simple zip, extract it).
Then, you can freely use the class that's inside, using ApplicationDomain.getDefinition("OneOfYourClass).
More about application domain
Since it's at runtime, you won't have to compile Alchemy, thus it should work fine for anyone.
I wanted to ask if there is a possibility to identify objects in more meaningful way during the debug. e.g. now in flex builder debug panel I see for example:
Object(#12131241241)
And ideally I wanted to have Object(#"field1:field2")... is there a way to do it. I believe in java it can be achieved by overriding toString method of the given class.... Tried same in as3 but it did not work
Not answering your question directly here but there are many community debuggers around that give you more meaningful data. The IDE's Intellij Idea or Flash Develop and there are a few other projects such as http://demonsterdebugger.com/ or http://code.google.com/p/flash-console/ which give you an insane toolset for debugging.
I have a basic problem with knowing which classes to import for a given application, renderer, AS package, mxml component, etc. There seems to be hundreds of classes (both mx and flash) and I'm never sure which one(s) to import... so I just keep adding import statements until the errors go away. Is there a reference somewhere that I don't know about? Or does this just come with experience? Also... does importing a load of classes actually make the file size larger or does Flex only import the classes used nregardless of what I specify? If it only uses what is needed, why wouldn't everyone just do: import mx.*;
I would suggest that if you find yourself bringing in tons of imports, you should ask yourself: Does this class do to much?
It is less of a technical issue, and more of problem of object-oriented design -- maintainability, testability and stability.
I do my best to limit my external dependencies. I try to conform to SOLID principles that tell me that classes should exist for one reason. If a class does too much, it is a "code smell" and an indication that you should split it up.
How much is too much? It is tough to have a specific litmus test or limit... I just ask myself "What does this class do"? If my answer contains an "and" in it, then I consider splitting it up.
I think your problem is a not a real problem if you use any half decent IDE. If you're not using one, you probably should (even if it's not stricly necessary and you can write and compile with notepad and the command line).
If you are using Flex/Flash Builder, it will add the imports automatically (and remove the unneeded ones as well). Also, you can use Ctrl + SPACE to prompt autocomplete, which should add the necessary imports.
Flash Develop also manages this for you (the shortcut was Ctrl + Shift + 1 if I recall correctly, but I haven't used FD for a while).
There are other IDEs out there that I haven't personally used but also have this very basic feature.
If you're using the Flash IDE, well, it really sucks for writting code, so you should probably consider writting your code in some other less brain-dead editor if you plan to do anything more than a couple of lines of code here and there (again, you can write code in the Flash IDE but why not taking advantage of better tools when they're available?).
When you get an error, look at the API Reference for the class, and then either import the whole package or just the class you want. Highlighting the class and hitting F1 should also work (but I never search help this way).
As for file size, see my answer on Is it possible to dynamically create an instance of user-defined Class in Action Script 3?
As Juan pointed out, use FlashDevelop, it is a great (and free) IDE.
If you're using FlashDevelop with the Flex Compiler, you can compile straight from FlashDevelop, and use the refactoring tools they offer to slim down your imports.
Aside from that though, if you're not referencing them, they don't get compiled, so it's not like your compiled swf is any bigger.
Does anyone know of a program or plug-in or anything that I can find out what are all the exceptions any method may throw?
I think JAVA has this build in if I'm not mistaken. Where the compiler tells you what exceptions this method will throw.
Does the same exist for .NET?
Thanks
Edit: After searching around more, I wish there was tool like Object Explorer, except for Exceptions. You select the class or method and it lists the exceptions, at that level, which are thrown by the class. The tool links provided are a great start. Thanks!
I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but:
http://www.red-gate.com/Products/Exception_Hunter/index.htm
Note: I've never used the product, and I don't work for Red Gate, I just remember seeing it advertised before.
You can see this information with intellisense in Visual Studio. When you highlight a method name in the intellisense list, its description should contain a list of exceptions at the bottom. This information is added by properly commenting your methods and classes. If you are using a library that is not part of the framework, then you will only get this information if the developers of the library appropriately commented their code.
.NET doesn't require or permit each method to state which exceptions it throws. As I recall, it was felt that this would lead most developers to simply state "throws Exception".
hope you can help me with this question.
So, I've been working for a while with Flex, and had the crazy idea to create pure AS project.
If I compile a Flex app with the -keep flag, the generated actionscript gets generated.
Do you guys know of a way to make it compile, without going trough the code and gluing it all together?
Thanks.
Generated ActionScript is really only provided for reference; it's not really intended to be repurposed in that sense. Indeed, if you even have any, you've most likely compiled your project already anyway (unless you got it from somewhere else), so one might ask why you'd want to compile the generated stuff rather than your own source -- but nonetheless, although I haven't actually tried it, you should be able to point the Flex compiler mxmlc at your generated source to compile it, provided you're able to get all your dependencies to line up (which may be what you mean by "gluing it all together").
Just a thought, although again, I haven't actually tried it, so your results may vary. What is it you're trying to do, though? Just curious. :)
Like Christian mentioned, the generated AS code is pretty much there to serve as a reference. Just for fun, I tried compiling it from the command line using mxmlc, but part of the problem with doing that is that the class files generated don't match the classes they represent. So, you'd need to start renaming a bunch of your class files so that compiling those could even work. Many of the other classes in Flex won't be compiled in either, for the same reason.
As an example, the project I tested this with, had only one mxml file of source code in it. The generated output was 45 files. I'm sure that if you really wanted to do this, and were willing to invest the time in cleaning things up you could. But I'm curious too - why would you want to do this?
Actually it was just mere curiosity. I wanted to understand how the framework works and see how it merges it all together to make the final application, as I thought that the generated actionscript files were just a step in between the final SWF file, so I tought there should be a way for it to grab those files and generate the final application.
Eventually I would have tried to create a pure actionscript project just for the heck of it to see how complicated it was and what errors could happen when developing other stuff.
I know it sounds crazy, but I had some spare time, ha ha ha.