How to build and test

Once you have everything configured, building and testing the SDK is easy and fast — it takes only a few minutes. (Fortunately, it's only the first-time setup that requires some effort!)

Selecting what to build

To do a build, first decide whether you want to build the trunk, a branch, or a tag. (Tags are particular releases, such as the 3.0.0.477 release.) Execute

cd flex/sdk/trunk
source setup.sh

in Cygwin (on Windows) or Terminal (on Macintosh). The environment variables JAVA_HOME, ANT_HOME, and PATH are now set properly for working with that particular branch.

Building

When you build, two things happen:

• First the Java source code for the author-time command-line tools, which is located in the modules directory, is compiled using the J2SDK to create JAR files in the lib directory. This includes the code for the command-line tools mxmlc and compc.

• Then the ActionScript source code for the runtime framework, which is located in the frameworks/projects directory, is compiled using compc to create SWC files in the frameworks/libs and frameworks/locale directories.

To build everything, execute

ant -q main

The -q option tells the build scripts to produce less output so that you don't get overwhelmed.

You should see output similar to this:

    [javac] Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
    [javac] Note: Recompile with -deprecation for details.
     [echo] Building lib/fdb.jar
    [javac] Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
    [javac] Note: Recompile with -deprecation for details.
     [echo] Building lib/mxmlc.jar
     [echo] Building lib/mxmlc_ja.jar
     [echo] Building lib/compc.jar
     [echo] Building lib/asdoc.jar
     [echo] Building lib/fcsh.jar
     [echo] Building lib/flex-compiler-oem.jar
     [echo] Building lib/optimizer.jar
     [echo] Building lib/digest.jar
     [echo] Building lib/copylocale.jar

     [java] asDocHelper.abc, 49082 bytes written
     [java] asDocHelper.exe, 647106 bytes written
     [echo] Building lib/flexTasks-internal.jar
     [echo] Building lib/flexTasks.jar
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/libs/framework.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/locale/en_US/framework_rb.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/locale/ja_JP/framework_rb.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/libs/rpc.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/locale/en_US/rpc_rb.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/locale/ja_JP/rpc_rb.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/libs/air/airframework.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/locale/en_US/airframework_rb.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/locale/ja_JP/airframework_rb.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/libs/flex.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/libs/utilities.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/themes/HaloClassic/haloclassic.swc
     [echo] Compiling frameworks/projects/flash_integration/libs/FlexComponentBa
se.swc
     [echo] ant main target completed on 01/31/2008 12:13:33 AM

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 2 minutes 19 seconds 

You can ignore the messages about deprecated APIs. As you can see, various JARs and SWCs got built.

Testing

To test what you've just built, execute

ant -q checkintests

This will compile two test applications and run them in the standalone Flash Player under our automated testing framework (which we call Mustella).

You'll see a Flash Player window open twice and each application will quickly run as if a very fast user were interacting with it. In the Cygwin or Terminal window, you should see output like

     [echo] launching player and swf
     [echo] compiling checkinapp
     [echo] launching player and swf

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 39 seconds

Of course, you can combine building and testing in one Ant command:

ant -q main checkintests

Developing

You should now be able to use the SDK that you just built to compile an application:

cd dev/MyApp
mxmlc MyApp.mxml

Cleaning

To get rid of all the output files created by building and testing, execute

ant -q clean

Switching branches

To work on a different branch, you don't have to open a new shell. Simply cd to the branch and run its setup.sh script:

cd flex/sdk/branches/3.0.x
source setup.sh

If you want to restore JAVA_HOME, ANT_HOME, and PATH to their original settings, start a new shell.