FB4 Migration Tip

Thanks to the help of several Adobe members I was able to successfully import a styled (.css) Flex 3 project into Flash Builder 4 and have it retain its aesthetic and functional attributes. I wanted to take a moment and share what I found with everyone, in case you may find yourself confronted with the same issues.

1.First, to bring in my Flex 3 project to Flash Builder 4 I needed to add a single line in my .css file:

@namespace ''library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo'';

FB4 Migration Tip

Hi

Glad to here it all went to plan.

Was just the same here.

After all the talk of things breaking it's good to hear a success story.

I used a similar approach to this, rather than using the compiler argument I just grabbed the css file from the halo components and included that above my other style sheets includes at the top on main.mxml. Im not sure if this just gives exactly the same result in the end, but it defiantly worked for me.

I know that almost all of the styles that were set by using the default.css (i think that was the file i used) and then overriding the values with subsequently included style may seem kind of redundant, but my thinking was, well at least when my custom style are being added they are working from the same base that they were expecting in sdk3.

All in all our projects transition to sdk4 has been very smooth. This is a large project (it's an intranet application for a uk architects and bespoke joiners, and when complete will be used at just about every stage of their workflow. I was expecting a lot more pain during the conversion than we had)

It's my opinion (and it's a very strong one) that the advantages of moving to sdk4 are more than worth the initial conversion.

At present the application uses a mix of sdk3 and 4. And this mix is quite deep. As time goes by more and more has been changed to sdk4. It was my initial intention to get the project working as was, then continue to use new features as and when they were advantageous. What has happened though, is that having found new sections of the application written in sdk4 being so much better, easier to read, flexible, that we've started re-writing perfectly useable sections of the app over to sdk4. Trust me when I say we wouldn閳ユ獩 have done his extra work if there wasn't some pay off.

Anyway, good to hear how things went for you

Cheers

glenn

tinylion

FB4 Migration Tip

Glenn,

There is always the lure to immediately embrace the newest

technologies. I'd been considerably eager to see what Flash Builder

had to offer and it does, indeed, provide a broader landscape of

possibilities. After everything has been said and done I believe the

Flash Builder team should consider a Migration Assistant to help

transition Flex 3 projects to the Flash Builder 4 code architecture.

Upon importing a Flex 3 project the user could be asked if they would

like to formally convert the entire codebase into a native FB 4

project. It would then go through the document, possibly stopping

occasionally asking for approval to do something, and update all

relevant code so it becomes a true FB4 app. There could also be a list

provided after this conversion that specifically outlines all changes

made.

I've been working in Flex for a number of months now. Prior to this I

was using the Flash IDE. Upon exploring Flex, the advantages were

clear and substantial. Flex is absolutely outstanding for both

designers and developers in my opinion. The issue, however, is that

Flex users should be, above all, anxious to migrate to Flash Builder

4, not worried. If a Flex 3 developer has finished a huge project

(like you and I apparently) in Flex 3 we shouldn't have to go through

all of our code trying to figure out what needs to be changed. There

should be something that helps developers do that automatically.

Technology is relentlessly changing. Monthly, weekly, daily even.

That's great but for something like Flex, new versions shouldn't have

developers searching everywhere trying to find patchwork solutions.

The folks over at the Flash Builder 4 team have been great assisting

both myself and the multitude of other users with their issues, so I'm

pretty confident things will unfold well.

Jason Villmer

www.lucid.it

villmer@lucid.it