Extending the Flex Builder IDE: (X)HTML, XML, CSS and JavaScript support

Posted by Dennis on Mar 13, 2007 in Flex • 14 comments

(X)HTML, CSS and JavaScript doesn’t come standard with the Flex Builder IDE. But there is a superb plugin that supports these languages! Meet Aptana, which is also based on Eclipse. Here are the steps to take to plug this into the Flex Builder:

  • Go to Help > Software Updates > Find and Install
  • Choose the “Search for new features to install” option
  • Click on the “New Remote Site…” button
  • Here you need to fill in a name (Aptana) and a URL (http://update.aptana.com/install/3.2/)
  • This will take you through the downloading & installing process, which is quite easy to do
  • In the end, Flex will ask you to restart the workbench and then you’re ready to go!

Note: When you restart the Flex Builder application, .as files are associated with the Aptana JavaScript editor. To change this:

  • Go to Window > Preferences
  • Go to General > Editors and click on “File Associations”
  • Click on *.as in the right pane
  • Select “ActionScript Editor” in the bottom pane and click on the “Default” button in the right


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14 comments

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  1. Chad on Mar 13, 2007, 1:30 pm:

    Another Great Eclipse plugin… sourceforge.net/projects/phpeclipse/ - PHPEclipse!

  2. Dennis on Mar 13, 2007, 1:36 pm:

    Does PHPEclipse work in Flex Builder? Unfortunately not all Eclipse plugins work in FB, like the VSS plugin.

  3. Anonymous on Mar 13, 2007, 4:02 pm:

    DONT DO THIS!; you will have massive problems within your flex debugger
    ozzy

  4. Dennis on Mar 13, 2007, 4:07 pm:

    Can you be more exact? I’ve been debugging without problems since I installed the Aptana plugin.

  5. Nate on Mar 13, 2007, 4:56 pm:

    Very very cool. I’m used to writing css with VS2005 and it tells me everything I need to know. Now I don’t have to look at old projects to remember the correct way to format image-background:url(blahblahblah)

  6. Anonymous on Mar 13, 2007, 5:44 pm:

    DONT DO THIS!; you will have massive problems within your flex debugger
    ozzy

  7. Anonymous on Mar 13, 2007, 5:51 pm:

    i made the installation of aptana and after one hour of normal behaviour all *.as files have been debugged as if they would be javascript files; i got error over error … ;the only way was to deactivate aptana; :-( ozzy

  8. Dennis on Mar 13, 2007, 6:25 pm:

    Very strange, I don’t have that problem. I’ve installed Aptana on my home computer and on my office computer. No problem like this have occurred. Does anyone else have this problem?

  9. Dennis on Mar 13, 2007, 8:41 pm:

    This problem occurs when you restart Flex Builder completely, not just the workbench. To fix this problem you need to change the file association. I modified the post with a fix to this problem.

  10. Willie on Aug 29, 2007, 3:50 pm:

    Has the remote link changed? After following the ‘Find and Install’ instructions, I get a message that no updates were found. I thought I would try to download the archived update site, but I can’t find a link to it.

  11. Dennis on Aug 29, 2007, 3:57 pm:

    Hey Willie,
    You’re right, the new remote link is http://update.aptana.com/install/3.2/
    I’ll change it in the post, thanks!
    Dennis

  12. Erich Cervantez on Nov 13, 2007, 8:18 pm:

    Anyone else get the: Aptana Web Development Tools (1.0.0.003242) requires plug-in “org.eclipse.core.filesystem” error?

    I’m not really sure how to get the org.eclipse.core.filesystem plug-in. I attempted to install the core tools but this still doesn’t exist. Any ideas?

  13. Igor on Apr 2, 2009, 1:44 pm:

    The updated version dated 03/29/2009 is http://studio.aptana.com/023247/index.html

    Regards
    IC

  14. Gunter on Oct 27, 2009, 8:00 am:

    Aptana is nice, but the XML editing is also mentioned on the Adobe Forums.

    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/420215
    In this thread they discuess an easy way to upgrade your Flex Builder.

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