Falcon and FalconJX Developer Setup

Set Up

This is the setup for developers working with the source code. If you only want to build applications with the Falcon and FalconJX compilers, see: Getting Started with the Falcon and FalconJX Compilers.

First you will need the following prerequisites:

A. Java SE JDK 1.6 or later

Some computers come with Java installed, but not only do you need a Java runtime (JRE) you need a Java Development Kit (JDK).  To find out if you have a JDK installed run

The Java Compiler (javac) should print out its version if its already installed.  If not, download and install a JDK from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html.  Then:

• Add the "bin" folder from wherever you installed it to your environment's PATH variable. 
• Create a new JAVA_HOME environment variable that points to the folder containing unzipped files.

B. Apache Ant

• Get Apache Ant from https://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi.  Unzip it somewhere.
• Add the "bin" folder from wherever you install it to your environment's PATH variable.
• Create a new ANT_HOME environment variable that points to the folder containing the unzipped files.

C. Adobe AIR SDK

• Get a recent Adobe AIR SDK for Windows or Mac.  Unzip it somewhere.  Note that there are two types of AIR SDKs for each platform and the default type does not work well with Flex so use the links provided or make sure you select the Flex-compatible versions on the Adobe site.
• Create a new AIR_HOME environment variable that points to the folder containing the unzipped files.

D. Adobe Flash Player playerglobal.swc

• Get a recent playerglobal.swc file from the Adobe Flash Player Downloads page: https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html.  You will have to scroll down a bit to find the link.  Here, for example, is a link to the playerglobal.swc for Adobe Flash Player 18.0.  The filename will include the version number (e.g. playerglobal18_0.swc).  Rename the file to playerglobal.swc and place it in a folder containing the version number (e.g. 18.0/playerglobal.swc on Mac and 18.0\playerglobal.swc on Windows).  For example, many people create a /Users/myusername/adobe/flashplayer folder on Mac and c:\adobe\flashplayer folder on Windows, and store a playerglobal.swc in /Users/myusername/adobe/flashplayer/18.0/playerglobal.swc on Mac and/or c:\adobe\flashplayer\18.0\playerglobal.swc on Windows.
• Create a PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME environment variable that points to the folder containing the folder with the version number.  In the example above, it would be /Users/myusername/adobe/flashplayer on Mac and/or c:\adobe\flashplayer on Windows.

E. Adobe Flash Player Projector Content Debugger

• Get a recent Projector Content Debugger (aka Standalone Debug Player) for your platform from the Adobe Flash Player Downloads page: https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html.
• Create a FLASHPLAYER_DEBUGGER environment variable that points to the Debugger.  For example, on Mac, if you store the Debugger in "/Users/myusername/adobe/flashplayer/18.0/Flash Player Debugger.app", you would set the environment variable to: 

   "/Users/myusername/adobe/flashplayer/18.0/Flash Player Debugger.app/Contents/MacOS/Flash Player Debugger" (without quotes) and on Windows, if you store the Debugger in c:\adobe\flashplayer\18.0\flashplayer_18_sa_debug.exe, you would set the environment variable to c:\adobe\flashplayer\18.0\flashplayer_18_sa_debug.exe.

F. Git

Git is a source code management application.  Some computers come with Git installed.  To find out if you have Git installed run

Git should print out its version if it is already installed.  If not, install Git for your platform from here: http://git-scm.com/downloads.  Many folks prefer GUI versions of Git, which is fine as long as there is a command-line version as well.  Add Git to your PATH environment variable.

Downloading and Building the Source

1. Get the source code from Apache Git via

    

   git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-asjs flex-asjs cd flex-falcon git checkout develop

2. Get the Flex SDK code from Apache Git at

   
   

    

   git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-sdk.git flex-sdk cd flex-sdk git checkout develop

3. Get the TLF code from Apache Git at

    

   git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/flex-tlf.git tlf cd tlf git checkout develop

4. In the flex-sdk folder, run 'ant' to build the sdk.
5. In the flex-falcon folder, run 'ant all'.

Using Eclipse

We are using Eclipse Helios for Java 1.6 compatibility because at least one of the jars (flex-oem-compiler) needs to be 1.6 compatible to work with Flash Builder.  There are eclipse project files in the flex-falcon repo. The run/debug configuration for building a FlexJS SWF in Eclipse needs the following settings (Assuming the path to the flex-asjs repo is /Users/myusername/git/apache/flex/flex-asjs):

Program Arguments:

VM Arguments:

And the environment variables:
PLAYERGLOBAL_HOME points to the folder containing versions of playerglobal.swc as specified above.  Thus, if you followed the instructions above on a Mac, you would set the variable to: /Users/myusername/adobe/flashplayer

For cross-compiling with FalconJX the Program Arguments are: