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Create a new ActionScript project in Visual Studio Code that targets the classic Apache Flex SDK

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Josh Tynjala edited this page Jan 14, 2022 · 32 revisions

Learn to set up a project in Visual Studio Code to create an Apache Flex application that can run on Adobe AIR or Flash Player.

Development Setup

  1. Install the ActionScript & MXML extension for Visual Studio Code.

  2. Install the Apache Flex SDK (or you may use the legacy Adobe Flex SDK instead).

  3. Create a new directory for your project, and open it in Visual Studio Code.

    To open a directory, select the File menu → Open... or click Open Folder button in the Explorer pane.

  4. Set your workspace's SDK to the Flex SDK that you installed.

  5. Create a file named asconfig.json in the root directory of your project, and add the following content:

    {
	"compilerOptions": {
		"source-path": [
			"src"
		],
		"output": "bin/Main.swf"
	},
	"mainClass": "Main"
}

    An Adobe AIR project that targets desktop should set config to "air" instead, and a mobile project should set config to "airmobile". Additionally, you should specify the path to your AIR application descriptor (which we'll create in a moment). Here's an example for an AIR desktop project:

    {
	"config": "air",
	"compilerOptions": {
		"source-path": [
			"src"
		],
		"output": "bin/Main.swf"
	},
	"mainClass": "Main",
	"application": "src/Main-app.xml"
}

  6. Create directory named src.

  7. Inside src, create a file named Main.mxml, and add the following code:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
   xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
   xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx">

	<s:layout>
		<s:BasicLayout/>
	</s:layout>

	<s:Label text="Hello World" horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0"/>

</s:Application>

    Note: An Adobe AIR project that targets desktop should used WindowedApplication instead of Application.

  8. If you are building an AIR application, then create an AIR application descriptor file named Main-app.xml inside src. AIR application descriptors may be configured with many more elements, but you can use the following simple content as a starting point:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/24.0"> 
	<id>com.example.Main</id> 
	<versionNumber>0.0.0</versionNumber> 
	<filename>Main</filename> 
	<name>Main</name> 
	<initialWindow>
		<content>[Path to content will be replaced by Visual Studio Code]</content> 
		<visible>true</visible>
	</initialWindow>
</application>

    Be sure to update the version number in the namespace http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/24.0 to match the version of Adobe AIR that you are targeting.

Next Steps

Getting Started

Project Types

Debugging

Reference

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