Building ActionScript and Flex Applications

This feature is supported in the Ultimate edition only.

Your ActionScript and Flex sources are compiled according to corresponding build configurations, in particular:

• When you compile a Flash module or its part (Build | Make Module '<name>' or Build | Compile '<target_name>' (Ctrl+Shift+F9)), the compilation output, generally, is produced for all the build configurations associated with the module.

  To disable compilation for certain build configurations, turn on the Skip compilation option in the corresponding build configurations.

• When you compile a whole project (Build | Make Project (Ctrl+F9), Build | Rebuild Project), similarly, the compilation output is generated for all the build configurations for which the compilation is not explicitly disabled.
• When the sources are compiled using a run/debug configuration, the compilation output is generated only for the associated build configuration.

Compilation process

During the compilation, for each individual build configuration, the following files are processed, and the results of processing are placed into the output folder:

• Resource files (e.g., image files).

  For applications, you can explicitly specify whether you want the resource files within the module source roots to be copied to the output folder (the Copy resource files to output folder option on the Build Configuration page). You can also select individual files and folders that should not be copied (the Compiler | Excludes page of the Settings dialog).

  For libraries and RLMs, the resource files are never copied to the output folder.

• Source files (.as and .mxml).

  The source files are compiled and, depending on the build configuration output type, the corresponding .swf or .swc file is produced.

• .css files to be compiled into runtime style sheets (for Web and desktop applications).

  The specified .css files (the Runtime style sheets field on the Build Configuration page), obviously, are compiled. Their file names don’t change; the extension changes to .swf.

• HTML wrapper template files (for Web applications).

  If so specified (the Use HTML wrapper option on the Build Configuration page), the files that constitute the HTML wrapper template are processed. (These files are stored in a separate folder called html-template or something similar.)

  The index.template.html file is renamed: the resulting .html wrapper file will have the same name as the application .swf file. The tokens contained in this file such as ${title}, ${swf} are replaced with the appropriate values. For example, ${swf} is replaced with the .swf file name. See also, Using the SWF metadata tag to control HTML wrapper properties.

  Other files that constitute the HTML wrapper are copied to the output folder without any changes.

• An application descriptor template (for desktop and mobile applications).

  Depending on the build configuration settings, either an auto-generated descriptor is created in the output folder, or a specified template file is used. In the latter case, the text in the <content> element of the template is replaced with the name and extension (.swf) of the application file.