Installing the Flex Builder Plugin 3.x Walkthrough

Background

To develop client-side applications in Flex, the best tool to use is Flex Builder. Flex Builder is available as either a standalone application or an Eclipse plugin. In this walkthrough we'll be installing the plugin version.

The following walkthrough was written for Mac OS X. The instructions should work with minor modifications on Windows and other platforms.

Prerequisites

1. Java 5, set as your default JVM (The current Flex Builder plugin does not install correctly when Java 6 is the default).
   
2. Eclipse 3.4.2
   

Installation

1. Head over to the Flex Builder download page and download the Flex Builder plugin for Eclipse. Make sure you grab the Eclipse plugin version - not the first option - to avoid having to download two large files instead of one!
   
   Note that for Flex 4, Flex Builder has been renamed Flash Builder, so the download page and links will likely be different.
2. If you are on Mac OS X, you just download a disk image. Mount the disk image.
3. Now run the installer. It should be named FB_Plugin_Mac_Installer.
4. Mac OS X will warn you that this application was downloaded from the Internet. That's OK, so click Open.
5. The installer will prompt you for your language. Select what you want to use click OK.
6. Click next at the Introduction panel
7. Select the radio button next to "I accept" and click Next
8. At the Choose Install Folder panel, you can accept the default location. In my case I already have Flex Builder installed, so I will choose an alternative location named "Adobe Flex Builder 3 Plug-in Test". Then click Next.
   
9. At the Choose Eclipse Folder panel, click the Choose button and navigate to your Eclipse folder. In the "Installing Eclipse 3.4.2" walkthrough we installed into /Applications/eclipse-3.4.2, so I've selected this folder. Then click Next.
   
10. At the Additional Installations panel, it is suggested that you also install JSEclipse if you will be doing any JavaScript development (e.g. an HTML-based AIR application). After you've made your decision, click Next.
    
11. Now the installer will ask that you close all browser windows so that it can install the Flash debugging player during the install process. You'll probably be OK on your own past this point, but you can take notes before you quit if you want to. When you're ready, close any browser windows, return to the installer, and click OK.
    
12. You should now see the Pre-Installation Summary panel. Click Install.
    
13. When the installation is complete, you should see the following Install Complete panel.
    
14. Congratulations! You've now installed the Flex Builder plugin for Eclipse.