Alternative to FlexBuilder

Trying to build flex applications? But can not pay for FlexBuilder. No worries. Open Source Community has already a solution for it but available in two pieces i.e MXML editor and AS3 plugin. We need to put them together to build a Flex application. Darran Schall has an old post that explains how to set up eclipse for working with MXML files. Though it is meant for flex's older version, the procedure remains same for newer versions too. I would just like to extend his post to make it work for Flex3 with MyEclipse.

Step 1. Get new xmls xsd file for Flex 3 version from xsd4mxml project.

Step 2. Start MyEclipse, from the menu, select Window -> Preferences. Select General -> Content Types. On the right, expand Text and highlight XML. Click the "Add" button and enter "*.mxml" as the file type. Click OK.

Step 3. Again from the menu, select Window -> Preferences. Expand "MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench" -> "Files and Editors" ->"XML". Click "User Specified Entries" and click "Add" and use the following values.

URI: browse for the path to the mxml.xsd file downloaded at Step 1.
Key: http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml

Step 4. Click "OK" to save the changes and close the window.

That is it. Set to create/modify mxml file with code assisting.

Now the second part. Download an eclipse plug-in from www.axdt.org that helps you to work with ActionScript 3.0. Though this plug-in does not have code assistance feature for AS3 but definitely good start to developing and compiling AS3 classes.

Happy building FLEX applications!!!

Free PDF Creator software

Looking for PDF creator software? I have found the following free PDF creators very easy, useful and feature-rich. Why to buy expensive Adobe PDF creator when I have these software on hand for free :)

1. Primo PDF

Creates PDF files from 300+ file types. You can secure with passwords and add document information (title, author, etc.) during creation.

2. PDF Creator


PDF Creator allows you to easily create professional looking PDF files in seconds. It is very simple to use. Open any file or document you want to turn into a PDF file. Click File -> Print and select "PDFCreator" as your print and click Print. PDF Creator will take over and in seconds your new PDF file will be ready to save.

3. PDF reDirect