Flash Builder is great for developing pure ActionScript games and applications if you are deploying to the web. When it comes to publishing to AIR for either the desktop or mobile devices it can be a bit of a pain to get everything set up – as ‘out of the box’ Flash Builder doesn’t have the same project set up options in its ActionScript project as it does in the Flex project equivalent. You can manually tweak your ActionScript project or use a Flex project as the basis for your ActionScript development, which is cool. Fortunately, in Flash Builder Burrito the ActionScript project has undergone an overhaul and now looks similar to the Flex project setup, enabling you to specify whether you are deploying to the web or the desktop (i.e Flash Player or AIR).
What about mobile development in ActionScript? You have a couple of choices here. If you have Flash Professional CS5 installed you can download the AIR of Android extensions from Adobe labs and use that (you can still use Flash Builder via the new Flash Pro/ Â Flash Builder integration). Alternatively you could try the new ActionScript Mobile project option in Flash Builder Burrito – perfect for those who don’t use Flash Professional but are used to a more code-centric IDE.
Like the Flex Mobile project, it allows you to target particular devices, set whether you want fixed or auto-orientation, and specify if your application should be full screen or not. When it comes to testing you can either test the features via the desktop emulator or, if you have a device connected to your machine, push and run it directly on the device. If you need to debug you can do that locally or remotely via the device – as it currently stands you’ll need to make sure that your machine and device are connected to the same wi-fi access point / network (I’ve never had any issues and it’s extremely useful when testing hardware-specific functionality).
Below is a video giving you a quick overview of the new ActionScript projects in Flash Builder Burrito.
New & Enhanced ActionScript Projects in Flash Builder Burrito from FlashGen on Vimeo.
Where is or when can we expect the iPhone packager implementation?
OMG! AS3 AIR project! Thank you!!!! I’ve been asking for that since AIR has existed.
AS3 Air projects in Flashbuilder, http://bit.ly/esSNr8 #goodnews!