How to update Flex SDK in Flash Builder 4.6

Question

As an owner of Flash Builder 4.6 I'm struggling with 2 problems in my web application:

1. XML parsing makes the whole application sluggish
2. Russian input in TextInput doesn't work with Opera

I wonder, if there is a new Flex SDK available for download, where some fixes might have been integrated since the Flash Builder 4.6 release several months ago.

So I have downloaded the "Flex SDK version 4.6.0.23201 is the latest production quality release" and installed it:

However this seems to be a version, which differs very little from the stock Flex SDK included with Flash Builder 4.6 originally.

My questions is: is there some good (i.e. fresh, but also tested/stable) source for Flex SDK, which would be suitable for Flash Builder 4.6?

Maybe I can check out the source from some repository and build it myself (how, please?).

Does Apache offer anything, since they are the new owners?

UPDATE:

I've checked out Apache's Flex with

svn co https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/flex/trunk flex

(and have yet to figure out, how to build it) - isn't it newer and better?

Answer 1

is there some good (i.e. fresh, but also tested/stable) source for Flex SDK, which would be suitable for Flash Builder 4.6?

Yes, that would be Adobe. I am not aware of any updates to Flex 4.6 since it's release late last November. It's only been three months. I believe the bulk of Adobe's work around Flex has been getting legal approval to submit Flex to Apache. They are getting that slowly.

You can download the source for the Adobe Flex SDK from opensource.adobe.com. Read this for info on getting the source from the Adobe SVN repository.

Does Apache offer anything, since they are the new owners?

The Apache project is still formally waiting for donations from Adobe, including their testing suite. But, some code is submitted from Adobe. A few people have submitted some new components, and there has been work done around localization. The Apache project does not have a formal release yet.

You should be able to get the Apache Source from SVN as an anonymous user. The trunk includes the framework dump from Adobe; but I haven't delved in myself. I know people have successfully built the Flex SDK from the Apache trunk. Here are some instructions on how to do it with IntelliJ

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I should add that I'm not sure if updating the SDK will solve any XML parsing issues you have. But, it's tough to say for sure since you went into no details on what those issues are. My mobile game uses a 30K line, 1MB XML file for the level definitions and it has no problems parsing it effeciently.

Answer 2

Flex SDK sources

You can find the latest source code through the Flex Apache incubator page and use Subversion to check it out. However since the migration of the Flex SDK from Adobe to the Apache foundation is still very much in progress, I sincerely doubt that there would already be significant changes that would fix your issues.

The actual issues

1. XML parsing makes the whole application sluggish

XML parsing is a pure ActionScript matter and has nothing to do with Flex. It is closely related to how the Flash VM works, which is still closed property of Adobe. I don't think it is subject to change any time soon, mostly because I've heard very little complaints about its performance and the E4X language is one of the most powerfull around. If you're having performance issues better have a look at your architecture or work with AS model objects instead of XML.

1. Russian input in TextInput doesn't work with Opera

This is either related to the Flash VM (see above) or to the Text Layout Framework, which is "open-source", but still in the hands of Adobe. Whether it should also be contributed to Apache Flex is still being discussed. In both cases very little will change in the short future, so I think you'll have to try another approach.

Answer 3

Are you sure it has anything to do with the SDK? If the problem of cyrillic chars exists only in Opera - then it's more like a problem of Opera and its Flash-plugin. This is what you get with Flex SDK 4.5 and Opera 11.61:

There might be another problem if you're using some font that doesn't have the cyrillic char subset (e.g. not using the default font). But if that were it, it would affect all browsers, not just Opera.

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