Lesson 2. Getting Started

What You Will Learn

In this lesson, you will:

• Create a new project and three main application files

• Understand the different parts of the Flex Builder workbench: editors, views, and perspectives

• Code, save, and run application files

• Use some of the features in Flex Builder 2 that make application development faster and easier, such as code hinting and local history

• Work in both Source mode and Design mode

• Use various views, such as Navigator view, Components view, and Flex Properties view

• Understand the process of how the MXML you write is transformed into a SWF file that Flash Player can process at the browser

Approximate Time

This lesson takes approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete.

Lesson Files

Media Files:

None

Starting Files:

None

Completed Files:

Lesson02/complete/DataEntry.mxml

Lesson02/complete/Dashboard.mxml

Lesson02/complete/EComm.mxml

You're ready to start your adventure of learning Adobe Flex, and the first thing to do is become familiar with the environment in which you will be developing your applications. This environment is Adobe Flex Builder 2, which is based on the Eclipse platform. The Eclipse platform is an open source, integrated development environment (IDE) that can be extended, and Flex Builder 2 has extended and customized Eclipse for building Flex applications.

In this lesson, you become familiar with Adobe Flex Builder 2 by building the main application files of the FlexGrocer application on which you will work throughout this book. By building the three basic files of the FlexGrocer application, you will learn about the Flex Builder 2 interface and how to create, run, and save application files. You will also discover some of the many features Flex Builder 2 offers to make application development easier.

Flex Builder 2 with a file open in Source mode