Getting Started with FlashDevelop

There a few things that need to be downloaded to get FlashDevelop up and running. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I”ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Preparation:

Download all of the following:

• FlashDevelop
• Flex SDK
• Java 1.6
• Flash Player Projector

Everything can be installed with the default settings. If you are an Advanced user, feel free to tweak any settings you want. But if you run into any problems I might not be able to assist.

Installation:

Install FlashDevelop. (Default settings are fine)
Extract the Flex SDK to any folder you want. (Mine is in an E:DevelopmentFlashSDKFlex)
Install Java 1.6. (Default settings are fine)
Save the Flash Player Projector to any folder you want. (Mine is in E:DevelopmentFlashPlayer)

Configuration:

Once everything is installed, start up FlashDevelop. If you are prompted to choose a Project Type, just select ActionScript 3 > Empty Project and name it something like InstallTest or whatever you want.

Press F10 to open the Settings dialog or choose Tools > Program Settings.

Select AS3Context and set the Flex SDK Location to the path of your Flex SDK (Mine is E:DevelopmentFlashSDKFlex)
Select FlashViewer and set the External Player Path to the path of the Flash Player Projector (Mine is E:DevelopmentFlashPlayerflashplayer_10_sa_debug.exe)
Click Close

Testing:

Let”s get something on the screen real quick, just to make sure things are working.

In the top right hand corner, you should see a Project panel. If you don”t, click View > Project Panel.

If you selected Empty Project before, you should just see an empty folder named “InstallTest”.
Right Click on the folder, and choose Properties. The only thing that MUST be changed here is the “Output file” field. This specifies the name of the SWF file that will be compiled. For now, just type in “InstallTest.swf”.

Right Click on the folder, and choose Add > New Class… and name the file the same as your Project name, in this case “Main.as”

Right Click on the file “Main.as” and select “Always Compile”. The file should now have a green icon next to it. This is the first file that is ran when the application is launched.

I always clean up all the pre-generated code, as I find it sloppy. Erase the contents of Main.as and paste in the following.

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package {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.text.TextField;
 
	public class Main extends Sprite {
		public function Main()  {
			var textField:TextField = new TextField();
			textField.text = "Hello World!";
			textField.x = 10;
			textField.y = 10;
			addChild(textField);
		}
	}
}

Press F5 to build and run the application. If everything is setup properly, you should see “Hello World!” printed out at the top of the screen.

That”s all there is to setting up FlashDevelop and now you can start building your own ActionScript 3 projects with a free (and superior imo) compiler!

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