Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) has recently been released, so I’m in process of rebuilding my development environment to run on it. I was happy enough to go use the update sites to re-install CFEclipse and MXUnit, and the StarTeam (our company’s chosen Version Control software) plugin was able to seamlessly update the Galileo instance of Eclipse to include it’s plugin, but I ran into a snag when trying to update the Flex Builder 3 plugin.
When originally installing the Flex Builder 3 plugin for eclipse, I used the default path (i.e. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3 Plugin\). When I tried to re-run the installer, It reported that I already had a Flex Builder Plugin instance at that location, and would I please choose another directory. Not wanting to clutter my hard drive with extra copies of the Flex Builder plugin, I decided to poke around and see what I could do to use the existing Flex Builder Plugin in my new Galileo installation.
What I eventually happened on was a very nice, clean way to install a single instance of an Eclipse plugin, and allow multiple copies of Eclipse use it. It’s pretty straight forward, and assumes you’ve already got a copy of Eclipse installed, and a licensed copy of the Flex Builder 3 Plugin installed.
First off, navigate into your eclipse directory. Mine is C:\Program Files\Eclipse\Galileo\ . This should be the folder which contains your eclipse.exe file. Under this directory, if there isn’t already a directory named “links”, create one. Navigate into the links directory. Create a new text file named “com.adobe.flexbuilder.feature.core.link”. Edit the file, and add the following contents to it:
path=C:/Program Files/Adobe/Flex Builder 3 Plug-in
Close the file, and start Eclipse. Now go into your Window Menu, select “Open Perspective”, and “Other”, and you should see your Flex Development Perspective listed. It’s even smart enough to pick up the license key from your previous installation, so you don’t have to dig out the old key to reinstall. However, for some reason, when I did this it lost my installed Flex SDKs. To fix this, I went to the “Window->Preferences” dialog, and navigated to the “Flex->Installed SDKs” option. I removed the two entries for “Flex 0.0″ which were listed, and re-added the two existing Flex SDKs: c:\program files\adobe\flex builder 3 plug-in\sdks\3.2.0 and c:\program files\adobe\flex builder 3 plug-in\sdks\2.0.1 You must mark one of these as default by clicking the checkmark next to it on the screen. After this, click Ok, and you should be good to go.
If you’re doing ColdFusion development, don’t forget to also install the ColdFusion extensions for Eclipse at C:\program files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3 Plug-in\Installers\ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder, and JSEclipse is also pretty helpful at C:\program files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3 Plug-in\Installers\JSEclipse
Thanx for the guide.
I was doing this with Eclipse 3.5 and Flex 4 plugin. The installation went well without errors but the JavaEE version still would not show Flash features. In my situation the following worked:
- copy the com.adobe.flexbuilder.feature.core.link.txt file into the /dropins/ directory inside eclipse with content:
path=C:/Apps/AdobeFlex4 (classis slashes)
You can see if there’s a path problem inside Eclipse in the Error log panel after startup.
Hey, thanks so much for this info. I’m a newbie in the use of Eclipse and have been mired in problems trying to get other stuff to work. It’s nice to have something that works with no hassles.
Hi,
After trying several options yours one was the exact solution.I would appreciate if you could post about any solution about ‘Eclipse is running in a JRE, but a JDK is required
Some Maven plugins may not work when importing projects or updating source folders.’
Thanks
Sudhansu
[...] eclipse, download eclipse flex plug-in from adobe, install eclipse & install flex plug-in. This link will help you if u are installing latest version of eclipse. No [...]
This procedure doesn’t work with Eclipse Indigo.I tried,but nothing really happens.No new perspectives.Any suggestions,anybody?
[...] these instructions to integrate Flex Builder Plugin with Galileo SR1. Let’s call the directory that you [...]
Hi,
I work with the UBUNTU linux OS and I have eclips galilio installed there. How to get the flex builder plugin for that and how to configure that. Please help if you have any idea about that.
Jeetendra
Unfortunately, Adobe has discontinued development of the Flex Builder (or Flash Builder as it’s called these days) on Linux. The best answer we’ve been able to get as to why is because their Licensing software doesn’t work properly on Linux, and that’s controlled by the Photoshop side of the house who has no interest in porting the Licensing software to Linux
Can any one give me the “ADOBE FLEX plugin” for eclipse 3.6.2 Helios ? Thanks in advance
@Bobby – The Adobe Flash builder is available from Adobe’s online store.
That was really helpful, thank you
hi,
how can i find/create flex developement on eclipse indigo
Seems the Flash builder is not free. Can we still develop flash based audio chat app without this software (only with red5)?