Over 7 months after Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) was released, Adobe still has not released an update for its popular Flex Builder 3 plug-in that would make it compatible with the most recent version of Eclipse. Those of us who rely on the plug-in for Flex/Air development are still stuck using Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede), or trying a number of manual install attempts, described here and here, neither of which worked for me. Ultimately, though, I’m not fond of hacky solutions for production-level products that I pay good money for.
Adobe has informally acknowledged the issue via its bug-tracking system, FB-21284 and FB-21025 (login required), although they have not publicly announced when a solution will be available. With the planned release of Eclipse 3.6 (Helios) now less than 5 months away, it makes you wonder when and even if the issue will be addressed. The Flex/Air projects have always been one of Adobe’s more grass-root movements, especially compared to its Creative and Web Suite products, and it’s a shame they have let the developers down. I call on everyone to contact Adobe with your concerns about Flex, with the hope they will address the issue if they understand how many developers this affects.
Updated (September 2010): Since releasing Flash Builder 4, Adobe has updated the Flex Eclipse plug-in to support Eclipse 3.5. Unfortunately, Eclipse 3.6 came out in June 2010 and is currently not supported, so Adobe is already another version behind. Also, I recommend developers stick with Flex 3 for now, as the new version is quite cumbersome to work with, meaning you’ll have to stay with Eclipse 3.4 for the time being to develop Flex applications.
I tried the first link you gave a few months ago and failed, but two weeks ago I got it going. The secret for me was to use a brand new workspace, ant not try to reuse the one created by Ganymede. I followed the directions for creating the file in the links directory, then fired up Galileo, creating a new workspace. I then copied my Java and Flex projects into the new workspace, imported them, and that was it. It’s been working perfectly ever since.
The other important thing is to make sure that the contents of the file in the links directory contains “path=C:/Program Files/Adobe/Flex Builder 3 Plug-in” including the path= part. I think I tried it without the path= once and it failed.
It’s unfortunate, I agree. It can’t be THAT hard to resolve. If it is extremely difficult to resolve, then Adobe should at the very least make that much clear. Fortunately, since writing that blog entry for Furious Purpose, I haven’t had done that much flex, so I’ve been using Eclipse 3.5 with GWT quite happily.
And Flex/AIR support in IntelliJ IDEA is still working in spite of new Eclipse releases 🙂
@Geoffrey
That’s ironic, I’ve been doing the same thing. GWT isn’t quite as fluid as Flex, but its a lot more accessible. Although last week’s Firefox 3.6 update broke the GWT Firefox plugin, but unlike Adobe I suspect Google will have an update available soon enough.
Update: Google has released a GWT update for Firefox 3.6.
Well I just got the Flex Builder Plug-In working with Eclipse Galileo but it was a challenge. Here is the basic steps and the web links below provide more information.
1] You need to install the Ganimede version of Eclipse first and then install the Flex plug-in of top of it as this can not be done on top of Galileo.
2] Next you install the Galileo Eclipse in a different location in your PC.
3] Next create the links directory inside Galileo and put a link to the Flex Builder plug-in.
4] Finally merge the Flex builder entries from the Ganimede install into the Galileo install. This entries are located on \configuration\org.eclipse.equinox.simpleconfigurator\bundles
Without the last step 4] nothing will happen. Also copy the file “startup_fb” from the Ganimede area to the Galileo area.
http://blog.flashgen.com/2009/04/09/reconnecting-flex-builder-plug-in-to-eclipse/
http://www.insideria.com/2009/09/fixed-an-internal-build-error.html
I do not think steps 5 – 11 above are needed because I backed them out and it still worked.
http://cambiatablog.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/flexbuilder-3-as-plugin-in-eclipse-3-5-galileo/
Thanks to all of the posters in the above links!!!!
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Thanks Rod!!! Step 4 was the key — for anyone reading this, let me reiterate what it involves, in detail:
i. Open the “org.eclipse.equinox.simpleconfigurator\bundles.info” file for Ganymede
ii. Copy all the the entries that start with “com.adobe.”
iii. Paste them into the “org.eclipse.equinox.simpleconfigurator\bundles.info” file for Galileo. Save it.
iv. Restart Galileo, and you should see the Flex perspective become available.
I also had to apply the ProblemManager patch from http://www.insideria.com/2009/09/fixed-an-internal-build-error.html, to get the compiler to work.