Flex Builder Tips

A few notes I took during David Zuckerman's Flex Builder Secrets panel at 360 Flex.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

• ctrl-shift-P - Find matching brace
• ctrl-shift-T - pop-up list of every type in project
• ctrl-click on a class to open and jump into the file for it.
• ctrl-o - brings up outline view
• ctrl-shift-o organize imports

OTHER NEAT FEATURES

• Use the history arrows in the toolbar to navigate between files you've been editing.
• Eclipse has a mini version control system built in. Right-click on file and do "compare with..." to compare with local history. You can adjust Local history prefs in General/Workspace/Local History
• Learn to use metadata tags to make development easier. (Search for "metadata" in help to see a list.
• Location of component description file: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 2\plugins\com.adobe.flexbuilder.editors.mxml_2.0.143459\config\commonDescriber.xml

HELP

• dynamic help (ctrl-F1) responds to clicking on different parts of the code
• shift F2 brings up full help for the identifier at the location of your cursor
  
• hover over an MXML tag to get its class

DEBUGGING
It may be preferable to use IE or Safari for debugging Flex. FF does not allow multiple concurrent debugging sessions.

The Flash IDE is Not Dead

It's funny that after attending a Flex conference I would come away looking forward to the next version of the Flash IDE! But this is what happened at 360 Flex yesterday. The Flash 9 IDE is just around the corner -- it's part of the Adobe CS3 -- and it sounds like it will have a couple of extremely helpful features:

• Import Photoshop documents into Flash, including support for layers.
• It will allow you to create Apollo apps
• Grant Skinner gave a presentation where he pushed Flash as an asset management tool. He demonstrated his strategy of embedding assets into Flex as "asset libraries".
  
• The ability to export symbols to Flex components as SWC files. (Though it will not be possible to export Flex components into Flash.)

I'm glad that better integration between Flash and Flex is finally on the horizon!

My Test Results...

...from Doolwind's Programmer Personality Test:

DHSC

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.


You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.


You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.


You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.

Conservative? So much for my ultra-liberal San Francisco values.

=)