Apache Flex Compiler
====================
This Apache Flex Compiler is also known as the 'Falcon' compiler. It is
the next-generation replacement to the MXMLC compiler that is currently
bundled with the Apache Flex SDK and is based on the Adobe ASC2.0 code base
donated to Apache by Adobe Systems Inc.
This Compiler may also be packaged with the Apache Flex Cross-Compiler which
has additional information in the README_JX file.
For detailed information about Apache Flex please visit
http://flex.apache.org/
This compiler may eventually replace MXMLC in the Apache Flex SDK, but is
also being used as the compiler for the Apache FlexJS SDK. FlexJS is a
next-generation SDK that allows the developer to leverage MXML and ActionScript
to build applications that not only run as a SWF, but can also be cross-compiled
to JavaScript and run natively in a browser or anywhere JavaScript runs.
Getting the latest sources via git
==================================
Getting the source code is the recommended way to get the Apache Flex Compiler.
We also offer an automated installer along with binary distributions on our
website at http://flex.apache.org/.
You can always checkout the latest source via git using the following
command:
git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-falcon.git flex-falcon
cd flex-falcon
git checkout develop
When working with the sources from Git, the Apache Flex Compiler
also requires code from other Apache Flex git repositories or an Apache Flex SDK.
These Apache Flex SDK source files are bundled in Apache Flex Falcon
source code distributions, so this step is optional when using source code
distributions.
To get the latest source via git for the Apache Flex SDK use the following command:
git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-sdk.git flex-sdk
cd flex-sdk
git checkout develop
The Apache Flex SDK requires the Text Layout Framework repository which
you can get as follows:
git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-tlf.git flex-tlf
cd flex-tlf
git checkout develop
To use an Apache Flex SDK, install an Apache Flex SDK on your computer and
follow the instructions in 'Install Prerequisites'.
Building the Apache Flex Compiler
=================================
The Apache Flex Compiler is a large project. It requires some build tools
which must be installed prior to building the compiler and it depends on
some external software which are downloaded as part of the build process.
Some of these have different licenses. See the Software Dependencies section
for more information on the external software dependencies.
Linux support is currently experimental and while it is possible to compile
the SDK it has not been fully tested so you may run into issues.
Install Prerequisites
---------------------
Before building the Apache Flex Compiler you must install the following software
and set the corresponding environment variables using absolute file paths.
Relative file paths will result in build errors.
==================================================================================
SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE (absolute paths)
==================================================================================
Java SDK 1.6 or greater (*1) JAVA_HOME
(for Java 1.7 see note at (*2))
Ant 1.7.1 or greater (*1) ANT_HOME
(for Java 1.7 see note at (*2))
Adobe AIR Integration Kit (*3) AIR_HOME
Adobe Flash Player Content Debugger (*4) FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER
Adobe Flash Player playerglobal swcs (*5) PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME
Optional: Apache Flex SDK or repository (*6) FLEX_HOME
Optional: Apache Flex TLF source (*7) TLF_HOME
Optional: Flex Messaging Common (*8) BLAZEDS_HOME
==================================================================================
*1) The bin directories for ANT_HOME and JAVA_HOME should be added to your
PATH.
On Windows, set PATH to
PATH=%PATH%;%ANT_HOME%\bin;%JAVA_HOME%\bin
On the Mac (bash), set PATH to
export PATH="$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin"
On Linux make sure you path include ANT_HOME and JAVA_HOME.
*2) If you are using Java SDK 1.7 or greater on a Mac you must use Ant 1.8
or greater. If you use Java 1.7 with Ant 1.7, ant reports the java
version as 1.6 so the JVM args for the data model (-d32/-d64) will not
be set correctly and you will get compile errors.
*3) The Adobe AIR integration kit for Windows can be downloaded from:
http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/win/download/4.0/AdobeAIRSDK.zip
The Adobe AIR integration kit for Mac can be downloaded from:
http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/mac/download/4.0/AdobeAIRSDK.tbz2
The Adobe AIR integration kit for Linux can be downloaded from:
http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/2.6/AdobeAIRSDK.tbz2
Download the AIR SDK for your platform and unzip it. Set AIR_HOME to the
absolute path of the AIR SDK directory.
*4) The Adobe Flash Player content debuggers can be found here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html
On Windows, set FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER to the absolute path including the
filename of the FlashPlayerDebugger.exe. Note the filename of flash
player debugger maybe different.
e.g. C:\MyPath\FlashPlayerDebugger.exe
On the Mac, set FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER to the absolute path of
Flash Player Debugger.app/Contents/MacOS/Flash Player Debugger
On Linux, set FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER to the absolute path of
flashplayerdebugger
*5) The Adobe Flash Player playerglobal.swc for 11.1 can be downloaded from:
http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_1.swc
Use URL above to download playerglobal11_1.swc.
Set PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME to the absolute path of the player directory (not
including the version subdirectory). The target-player option controls
which PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME subdirectory is used.
Other more recent versions of Adobe Flash Player playerglobal.swc can be
downloaded from:
http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/<version.major>/playerglobal<version.major>_<version.minor>.swc
(e.g. http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/updaters/11/playerglobal11_1.swc)
Copy the target playerglobal.swc to the directory:
frameworks/libs/player/<version.major>.<version.minor>/playerglobal.swc
These can be used with the Apache Flex Compiler but not all have not been fully
tested.
*6) The FLEX_HOME variable should point to a folder of the flex-sdk sources.
If you don’t provide this variable (and TLF_HOME and BLAZEDS_HOME),
you may not be able to run all of the tests in the compiler
and compiler-jx folders.
*7) The TLF_HOME variable should point to a folder containing a folder
named textLayout that contains a src folder of the TLF sources.
This should be the root of the flex-tlf repository, or can be
the frameworks/projects folder of an IDE compatible Flex SDK.
*8) The build scripts assume that the root folder containing the source code
for Apache Flex BlazeDS ('flex-blazeds') is at the same level as the
SDK root folder ('flex-sdk'). See 'Getting the source code', below. If this
is not the case on your system, then you must set the BLAZEDS_HOME environment
variable to point to your BLAZEDS root folder. If you are using a released
artifact, the source should be included in the artifact, so setting
BLAZEDS_HOME is not required.
Software Dependencies
---------------------
The Apache Flex Compiler uses third-party code that will be downloaded as
part of the build.
The Apache Version 2.0 license is in the LICENSE file.
The following dependencies have licenses which are, or are compatible with,
the Apache Version 2.0 license. You will not be prompted to acknowledge the
download. Most of the jars are installed in lib/external when installed
into an Apache Flex SDK and the lib folder in the repository working copy.
antlr - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/antlr/antlr-complete/3.5.2/antlr-3.5.2-complete.jar
commons-cli - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-cli/commons-cli/1.2/commons-cli-1.2-bin.tar.gz
commons-io - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-io/commons-io/2.4/commons-io-2.4.tar.gz
commons-lang - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-lang/commons-lang/2.6/commons-lang-2.6.tar.gz
guava - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/google/guava/guava/17.0/guava-17.0.jar
jburg - https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/net/sourceforge/jburg/jburg/1.10.2/jburg-1.10.2.jar
jflex - http://jflex.de/jflex-1.6.0.tar.gz
lzma - http://www.java2s.com/Code/JarDownload/lzma/lzma-9.20.jar.zip
Using the Binary Distribution
-----------------------------
The binary distribution is intended to be installed into an existing Apache Flex
SDK or Apache FlexJS SDK.
There is an Apache Ant script in the binary distribution that will copy the
files into the right places.
To run it, use:
ant -f installer.xml -DFLEX_HOME=<path to Flex or FlexJS SDK
The script does not check the FLEX_HOME environment variable as that often
points to your primary Flex SDK.
If you expand the binary distribution into the "in" folder of an Apache Flex or
FlexJS SDK, the installer.xml script should find FLEX_HOME automatically.
Another option is to use the InstallApacheFlex (version 3.0 or higher).
Building the Source in the Source Distribution
----------------------------------------------
When you have all the prerequisites in place and the environment variables
set (see Install Prerequisites above), one final thing to check is whether
the folder contain the source code is in your Flash Player Trust files as
the build script runs the Flash Player Debugger as part of its automated
tests. Once you've done that, use
cd <falcon.dir>
ant main (or just ant since the default target is main)
to download the thirdparty dependencies and build the source. Since the
third-party dependencies take a little while to download and they don't
change very often, they are not cleaned with the regular clean target.
To clean the build, of everything other than the downloaded third-party
dependencies use
ant clean
To clean the build, of everything, including the downloaded third-party
dependencies use
ant wipe (which is just thirdparty-clean followed by clean)
To generate a source distribution package and a binary distribution package
use
ant -Dbuild.number=<YYYYMMDD> -Dbuild.noprompt= release
The packages can be found in the "out" subdirectory.
To get a brief listing of all the targets type
ant -projecthelp
Running Tests
-------------
Before running unit-, functional- or feature-tests you may need to create a
compiler/src/tests/unittest.properties file
A template is found here compiler/src/main/resources/template-unittest.properties.
Thanks for using Apache Flex. Enjoy!
The Apache Flex Project
<http://flex.apache.org>