Apache Flex (Flex)
==================
Apache Flex is an application framework for easily building Flash-based applications
for mobile devices, the browser and desktop.
Apache Flex 4.9 is a follow up release to Apache Flex 4.8 which was a parity release
of Adobe Flex 4.6. This version adds new features and implements bug fixes that were
unavailable in previous versions. It is compatible with most code written to target
Adobe Flex 4.6.
For detailed information about Apache Flex please visit
http://incubator.apache.org/flex/
The Apache Flex project has just graduated to be a top level Apache project and the
project's URL will be soon be changing to http://flex.apache.org/.
Apache Flex is a large project with many pieces. The framework is implemented
in ActionScript and the compiler is implemented in Java.
Currently supported platforms include:
Microsoft Windows
Mac OS X
Apple iOS
Google Android
RIM BlackBerry
Apache Flex is the software evolution of the popular Adobe Flex SDK project.
The community surrounding Flex is vast, diverse, distributed globally, and with all
levels of proficiency in software development. It is estimated that there are between
350,000 and 500,000 Flex developers worldwide.
Getting the latest sources via Subversion
=========================================
This is the recommended way to get Apache Flex. We offer an automated installer
along with binary distributions on our website at http://incubator.apache.org/flex.
You can always checkout the latest source via subversion using the following
command:
svn co https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/flex/trunk flex
For further information visit http://incubator.apache.org/flex/source.html
Getting the convenience packages for Apache Flex
================================================
The Apache Flex SDK Installer is an application that simplifies the download and
installation of the Apache Flex SDK and its (required) components. It is aimed at
anyone who wants to use the latest release of the Apache Flex SDK, but who might not
necessarily be familiar with the tools and procedures required to compile the Apache
Flex SDK from source code. The application will grab the binary distribution of the
SDK from apache.org or one of its mirrors, install it onto your computer and prepare
it for use with your favorite IDE such as Adobe Flash Builder or JetBrains IntelliJ.
You can get the SDK Installer from the Apache Flex website at
http://incubator.apache.org/flex/installer.html
You can also get just the binaries from our website as well. These binaries do not
include the dependencies, so additional software may need to be downloaded and installed.
http://incubator.apache.org/flex/download.html
Building Apache Flex 4.9
========================
Apache Flex is a large project. It requires some build tools which must be installed
prior to building Flex and it depends on some external software which
are downloaded as part of the build process. Some of these have different licenses.
See the Software Dependencies section for more information on the external software
dependencies.
From Apache's perspective, the Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR have excluded
licenses so they can not be bundled with the Apache Flex binaries. They must be
installed prior to building Apache Flex.
Install Prerequisites
---------------------
Before building Flex you must install the following software and set the
corresponding environment variables using absolute file paths. Relative file paths
will result in build errors.
The environment variables PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME, AIR_HOME, FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER,
PIXELBENDER_HOME and ADOBE_EXTENSION_MANAGER can also be set in the property file
called env.properties. See the env-template.properties file for instructions.
The Adobe Flash Player playerglobal.swc is needed to compile all the components
with the exception of the airframework and airspark components which require
airglobal.swc from the AIR Integration Kit. The AIR Integration kit is also needed
to build and debug mobile applications. The Adobe Flash Player content debugger is
used by checkintests and other pieces of the test subsystem to run compiled
applications. The Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit is needed to build some
files needed for effects.
==================================================================================
SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE (absolute paths)
==================================================================================
Java SDK 1.6 or greater (*1) JAVA_HOME
(for Java 1.7 see note at (*2))
Ant 1.7.1 or greater (*1) ANT_HOME
(for Java 1.7 see note at (*2))
Cygwin, git bash
or other unix-like shell
(if Windows)
Adobe AIR Integration Kit (*3) AIR_HOME
Adobe Flash Player Content Debugger (*4) FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER
Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit (*5) PIXELBENDER_HOME
Adobe Flash Player (*6) PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME
Adobe Extension Manager CS5 (*7) ADOBE_EXTENSION_MANAGER
==================================================================================
*1) The bin directories for ANT_HOME and JAVA_HOME should be added to your PATH.
On Windows, set PATH to
PATH=%PATH%;%ANT_HOME%\bin;%JAVA_HOME%\bin
On the Mac (bash), set PATH to
export PATH="$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin"
*2) If you are using Java SDK 1.7 or greater on a Mac you must use Ant 1.8 or
greater. If you use Java 1.7 with Ant 1.7, ant reports the java version as 1.6
so the JVM args for the data model (-d32/-d64) will not be set correctly and you
will get compile errors.
*3) The Adobe AIR integration kit for Windows can be downloaded from:
http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/win/download/3.4/AdobeAIRSDK.zip
The Adobe AIR integration kit for Mac can be downloaded from:
http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/mac/download/3.4/AdobeAIRSDK.tbz2
This version of Apache Flex was certified for use with AIR 3.4, and should
be compatible with other versions of AIR newer than 3.1. However it hasn't
been tested on AIR 3.2, 3.3 or 3.5.
Download the AIR SDK for your platform and unzip it. Set AIR_HOME to the absolute
path of the AIR SDK directory.
*4) The Adobe Flash Player content debuggers can be found here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html
This version of Apache Flex was certified for use with Adobe Flash Player 11.1, and
is compatible with versions 10.2 through 11.5. It has been tested with versions 11.1
and 11.5 on Windows and Mac. It has been compiled against other Adobe Flash Player
versions but has not been fully tested.
On Windows, set FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER to the absolute path of FlashPlayerDebugger.exe
On the Mac, set FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER to the absolute path of
Flash Player Debugger.app/Contents/MacOS/Flash Player Debugger
On Linux, set FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER to the absolute path of flashplayerdebugger
*5) The Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit for Windows can be downloaded from:
http://www.adobe.com/go/pixelbender_toolkit_zip/
The Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit for Mac can be downloaded from:
http://www.adobe.com/go/pixelbender_toolkit_dmg/
Download the Pixel Bender Toolkit for your platform and install or unzip it.
Set PIXELBENDER_HOME to the absolute path of the Pixel Bender Toolkit directory.
*6) The Adobe Flash Player playerglobal.swc for 11.1 can be downloaded from:
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_1.swc
Use URL above to download playerglobal11_1.swc. Create the directory, player/11.1
and copy playerglobal11_1.swc to player/11.1/playerglobal.swc.
Set PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME to the absolute path of the player directory (not including
the version subdirectory). The target-player option controls which
PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME subdirectory is used.
Other more recent versions of Adode Flash Player playergloal.swc can be downloaded from:
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_2.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_3.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_4.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_5.swc
These can be used with Apache Flex but have not been fully tested.
*7) The Adobe Extension Manager is only required for those creating releases or testing
changes to the flash-integration swc. Not that if you change APIs on classes
that flash-integration depends on, you may need to update flash-integration.
The Adobe Extension Manager for Windows can be downloaded from:
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/dw_exchange/extension_manager/win/AdobeExtensionManager5All.zip
The Adobe Extension Manager for Mac can be downloaded from:
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/dw_exchange/extension_manager/mac/AdobeExtensionManager5All.dmg
On Windows, set ADOBE_EXTENSION_MANAGER to the absolute path of "Adobe Extension Manager CS5.exe"
On the Mac, set ADOBE_EXTENSION_MANAGER to the absolute path of "Adobe Extension Manager CS5.app"
FlashPlayer Configuration
-------------------------
For testing, the Adobe Flash Player's mm.cfg file must have the following entries
ErrorReportingEnable=1
TraceOutputFileEnable=1
and a FlashPlayerTrust file must allow local SWFs to access local files.
Other Locale Support
--------------------
The Apache Flex SDK defaults to using the en_US locale and SDK error messages are by default
displayed in American English.
To compile the SDK for another locale either:
Change the locale in the build.properties file to have a value other than "en_US". For this new
locale to take effect the SDK needs to be recompiled. For example, to use the Australian English
locale change locale to have a value of "en_AU" like so:
locale = en_AU
OR
Compile the SDK with a -Dlocale=<locale> option, where <locale> is the new locale to compile the
SDK against.
The list of supported locales include:
da_DK el_GR en_GB fi_FI ja_JP nl_NL ru_RU zh_TW
de_CH en_AU en_US fr_FR ko_KR pt_BR sv_SE
de_DE en_CA es_ES it_IT nb_NO pt_PT zh_CN
The Apache Flex SDK has only been tested for the en_US locale, however there is unlikely to be any
issues with a SDK compiled for another locales.
Adobe Flash Player Version Support
----------------------------------
The Apache Flex SDK defaults to using the Adobe Flash Player 11.1. The SDK can be
compiled for Flash Player versions 10.2, 10.3, 11.0, 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4 and 11.5.
To compile the SDK for another version of the Adobe Flash Player either:
Change the playerglobal.version in the build.properties file to have a value other than "11.1".
For this change to take effect the SDK needs to be recompiled. For example to compile against the
lastest version of the Adobe Flash Player set the value of playerglobal.version to be "11.5" like so:
playerglobal.version = 11.5
OR
Compile the SDK with a -Dplayerglobal.version=<version> option, where <version> is the
Adobe Flash Player version to compile the SDK against.
Different versions of the Adobe Flash Player require different versions of playerglobal.swc.
These can be found at:
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/installers/archive/playerglobal/playerglobal10_2.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/installers/archive/playerglobal/playerglobal10_3.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_0.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_1.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_2.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_3.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_4.swc
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_5.swc
Copy the target playerglobal.swc to the directory:
frameworks/libs/player/<version>/playerglobal.swf
Where <version> is the major and minor version numbers of the Adobe Flash Player
separated by a period or full stop.
If all of the playerglobal swcs where installed the frameworks/libs/player directory
structure would look like this.
/frameworks
/libs
/player
/10.2
/playerglobal.swc
/10.3
/playerglobal.swc
/11.0
/playerglobal.swc
/11.2
/playerglobal.swc
/11.2
/playerglobal.swc
/11.3
/playerglobal.swc
/11.4
/playerglobal.swc
/11.5
/playerglobal.swc
Apache Flex has been tested with Adobe Flash Player 11.1 and 11.5 on Windows and Mac.
It compiles against other Adobe Flash Player versions and is expected to work but they
may be some issues, particularly with the earlier 10.2 and 10.3 versions of the
Adobe Flash Player.
Software Dependencies
---------------------
Apache Flex uses third-party code that will be downloaded as part of the Apache
Flex build. In addition, there is some optional third-party code that you can choose
to download if you would like to take advantage of the features offered and you agree
to the license terms.
The Apache Version 2.0 license is in the LICENSE file.
The following dependencies have licenses which are, or are compatible with, the Apache
Version 2.0 license. You will not be prompted to acknowledge the download. Most
of the jars are installed in lib/external.
batik - http://archive.apache.org/dist/xmlgraphics/batik/batik-1.6.zip
commons-collections - http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/collections/binaries/commons-collections-3.0.tar.gz
commons-discovery - http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/discovery/binaries/commons-discovery-0.2.tar.gz
commons-logging - http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/logging/binaries/commons-logging-1.0.4.tar.gz
javacc - http://java.net/projects/javacc/downloads/download/javacc-5.0.tar.gz
saxon9 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/saxon/files/Saxon-B/9.1.0.8/saxonb9-1-0-8j.zip/download
velocity - http://archive.apache.org/dist/velocity/engine/1.4/velocity-1.4.tar.gz
xalan - http://archive.apache.org/dist/xml/xalan-j/binaries/xalan-j_2_6_0-bin.tar.gz
xerces - http://archive.apache.org/dist/xerces/j/Xerces-J-bin.2.9.1.zip
The following dependencies have licenses which Apache considers to be reciprocal
licenses so you will be prompted to acknowledge the license before the software is
downloaded to your system. These files are installed in frameworks/libs.
osmf.swc
Open Source Media Framework v1.0 used for video components
This file is extracted from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/osmf.adobe/files/OSMF%201.0%20%28final%20source%2C%20ASDocs%2C%20PDF%20guides%2C%20and%20release%20notes%29/OSMF_1.0.zip/download
This software is released under the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1:
<http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/>
The following dependencies have licenses which Apache considers to be not compatible
with the Apache License Version 2.0. You will be prompted to read and agree to the
license terms of the dependency before the software can be downloaded to your system.
These are optional components which enable additional features. They are installed in
libs/external/optional.
flex-messaging-common.jar
Provides integration with Adobe BlazeDs.
This files are extracted from:
http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/flex/sdk/builds/flex4.6/flex_sdk_4.6.0.23201B.zip
This software is released under an Adobe license:
<http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/pdfs/adobe_flex_software_development_kit-combined-20110916_0930.pdf>
flex-fontkit.jar
afe.jar, adt.jar
aglj40.jar
rideau.jar
Adobe proprietary software which provides embedded font support.
These jars are extracted from:
http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/flex/sdk/builds/flex4.6/flex_sdk_4.6.0.23201B.zip
This software is released under an Adobe license:
<http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/pdfs/adobe_flex_software_development_kit-combined-20110916_0930.pdf>
Using the Binary Distribution
-----------------------------
You must download the third-party dependencies.
When you have all the prerequisites in place and the environment variables set,
(see Install Prerequisites above), use
cd <flex.dir>/frameworks
ant thirdparty-downloads
Building the Framework in a Binary Distribution
-----------------------------------------------
The source for most of the framework is included in the binary distribution.
It can be useful if you wish to debug and/or extend components.
When you have all the prerequisites in place and the environment variables set,
(see Install Prerequisites above), use
cd <flex.dir>/frameworks
ant main (or just ant since the default target is main)
to download the third-party dependencies and build the Flex framework. You may be
prompted to acknowledge some of the downloads. Since the third-party dependencies
take a little while to download and they don't change very often, they are not
cleaned with the regular clean target.
To clean the build, of everything other than the downloaded third-party dependencies
use
ant clean
To clean the build, of everything, including the downloaded third-party dependencies
use
ant super-clean (which is just thirdparty-clean followed by clean)
Building the Source in the Source Distribution
----------------------------------------------
The source for both the Flex compiler and the Flex framework is included in the
source distribution. The compiler is in the modules directory and the framework
is in the frameworks directory.
When you have all the prerequisites in place and the environment variables set
(see Install Prerequisites above), use
cd <flex.dir>
ant main (or just ant since the default target is main)
to download the thirdparty dependencies and build the source. You may be prompted
to acknowledge and/or confirm some of the downloads. Since the third-party
dependencies take a little while to download and they don't change very often, they
are not cleaned with the regular clean target.
If you would like to build the RSLs, use
ant frameworks-rsls
To clean the build, of everything other than the downloaded third-party dependencies
use
ant clean
To clean the build, of everything, including the downloaded third-party dependencies
use
ant super-clean (which is just thirdparty-clean followed by clean)
To generate a source distribution package and a binary distribution package use
ant -Dbuild.number=<last svn rev> -Dbuild.noprompt= release
The packages can be found in the "out" subdirectory.
To build the ASDoc package
ant asdoc-package
To get a brief listing of all the targets type
ant -projecthelp
Thanks for using Apache Flex.
The Apache Flex Project
<http://incubator.apache.org/flex>