About Advanced Flash Tactics

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. Each AFT is designed to be quickly digested, usually only taking a few minutes to get up and running, and contains valuable information you can directly apply to your next Flash campaign. In this AFT I will go over - Setting Up The Flash Developer Guerrilla Workflow.

Each situation may be different but the problem is always the same. It starts out like this. A hard drive crashed and you lost everything. Or you did a clean install on your Mac with Snow Leopard. What about when you start a new job and are given a newly formatted computer. By now you may have seen the common theme that you need to get up and running for developing Flash ASAP. It always happens when you are in the middle of a crazy deadline and can't afford to have any down time. This is where setting up the Flash Developer Guerrilla Workflow comes in! I discuss the must have tools in my own setup in order to get you up and running in less then an hour! I find it helpful to have a list of everything you would ever need to setup during those emergency situations. No time to waste, lets get started!

AS 3 Editor

Most important, you will need an editor. We have a few choices and it's up to you to find the one that best fits your needs.

If you are going the Eclipse rout, you will need to download that first. I use the Eclipse for PHP Developers build since it has built in support for HTML,CSS, and PHP which cuts down on other apps I would normally need in a bind. Once you have that downloading, lets get a plugin. Eclipse is free - Mac/PC/Linux

Warning - When it comes to downloading Adobe trials, you will need an Adobe account. Since this can take time out of your emergency setup plan it is always best to make sure you have this taken care of ahead of time. Also, for the Eclipse based editors I always install the plugin version and never touch the stand alone. Especially when it comes to Flex/Flash Builder since the stand alone doesn't have ANT built in and upgrading will take away valuable time from the other apps you need to setup.

• FDT - This is my editor of choice. It's not perfect but the shortcuts, code hinting, auto completing and real time error checking are huge time savers. Also, it auto formats your code which is very helpful when looking at other people's mess when you are in a bind. You may laugh but in a crunch situation all of these little features matter. 30 day trial - Mac/PC
• Flex Builder 3 - This is the de facto Flex Editor out there. If you need to write MXML look no further. Flex Builder is stable, easier to set up then FDT, and built on Eclipse. You can't go wrong with this editor. 30 day trial - Mac/PC/Linux
• Flash Builder 4 Beta - This is the next version of Flex Builder. Currently you can only get it as a beta and I tend to avoid beta's in production environments unless you are comfortable being a guinea pig. 30 day trial - Mac/PC

Incase you are not using an Eclipse based editor here are some alternatives you may want to download instead:

• Flash CS 4 - How can you go wrong with this? It was basically the one and only IDE for creating Flash Content before the whole FDT thing. I still like to keep a copy of it around to embed fonts or for those rare times when you need a timeline. If you're in a critical job situation and picking up a project from someone else chances are it may actually be built for the Flash IDE so don't overlook it. 30 day trial - Mac/PC
• Flash Develop - I don't use a PC but the developers I talk to who do swear by this editor. I can understand why, it has a good community around it and it's free. Only downside is that it is PC only. Free - PC only

SVN

The second most import tool for any Flash developer to use is SVN or some equivalent versioning system such as CVS or GIT. I like SVN because it is common and supported by Google Code. While on the topic of SVN apps, if you are correctly versioning your projects it should be as simple as checking them out on your new computer. I keep all my code on Google Code since it is free and contributes back to the community. If you have a problem sharing your code you may need to look elsewhere for hosting. Here are some good apps to get checking out code quickly:

• Subclipse - eclipse plugin to manage svn. This is what I use every day and couldn't live without it. I also really like it's visual merge window and Eclipse integration. Free - Eclipse Plugin
• Versions - really slick mac only SVN client but doesn't support Branching/Tagging yet. 30 day trial - Mac Only
• Tortoise SVN - PC only svn client that integrates right into the OS Filesystem. This one is interesting since it isn't an app and I am not sure how you do advanced svn features with it. Free - PC only

Once you have setup your SVN app you may want to check out the following Flash open source projects:

• as3corelib - ActionScript 3.0 library for several basic utilities.
• flash-camouflage - Flash Camouflage is a skinning framework for AS 3 Applications
• monsterdebugger - Debugger for Flash / Flex / AIR developed by design studio De Monster
• papervision3d - Open Source realtime 3D engine for Flash
• tweener A class for creating tweens in actionscript 2 and 3

Image Editors

You will need to do image manipulation at some point so make sure you don't forget to get the right app to support your needs:

• Photoshop CS4 - Do I really have to explain why this is at the top of my list? It's just one of those programs I can't live without. 30 day trial - Mac/PC
• Gimp - the best free/open source image editor out there. It runs on many operating systems and is as close to Photoshop as you can get. Free - Mac/PC/Linux

Utilities/Miscellaneous

There are apps that I just keep around because they serve a specific purpose but are not 100% geard towards Flash Development.

• Grant Skinner's RegExr - This is by far one of the greatest RegEx helper apps I have found. Best of all, it was built in AIR so any RegEx pattern you get to work in it will be 100% compatible with Flash. There is also a community sharing aspect for popular RegEx patterns snippets. Free - Mac/PC/Linux
• Pixus - Do you need a good on screen ruler? This is great because it is built in AIR and looks really slick. This app is a must when dealing with pixel perfect designers! Free - Mac/PC/Linux
• Drop Box - This is a great online storage service that installs seamlessly on your computer. The best part is that you get 2 gigs for free and you put anything you want to be synced in a folder on your computer. After that it takes care of everything in the background. I keep all my non-development files in my Drop Box so they stay synced between all my computers. Free-ish - Mac/PC/Web
• Pandora - I don't know about you but I need to listen to music when I program. Although it can get a little repetitive, it's free for the first 40 hours each month. Free-ish - Mac/PC/Web

Twitter

The last thing on my list is setting up my Twitter account. If you don't already have one, the Flash community is really supportive and friendly (in a tough love kind of way). I use to really hate twitter but now that I have spent enough time making connections to other Flash developers I find more answers here then anywhere else. The best part is that the creators of most of the open source projects you use are on and my even answer your question directly. Here are some good twitter clients to get setup:

• DestroyTwitter - one of the best Twitter clients out there and is the Best AIR app I have ever used. My only complaint is the lack of spell checker. Other then that it is perfect.Free - Mac/PC/Linux
• Tweetie - This is so far the best "native" Mac twitter app I have found. I use the Free Ad-Supported version and I hardly notice the ads. Free (Ad-Supported) - Mac Only

Also no twitter account would be complete without following these great developers:

• TheFlashBum - that's me.
• Seantron - Sean McCracken, Director of Research and Development @ Influxis, AS3/Flash Developer, Dad/Husband, Killer Clown From Outer Space, Math blaster, Music Muncher.
• kevinSuttle - Flash Platform Gundam, Mobile Zealot, Web Standardista, Progressive Enhancer, Visual Communicator, Part-time Wordsmith, Percussion Junkie, Licensed MMA Fighter
• joseeight - I'm a lead interactive developer with an avant-garde mind. I'm kind of in my own little creative world. Come and visit!
• chandimac - All things Actionscript :: Design Patterns :: WordPress Plugin and Theme Development :: Informal Learning
• robpenner - Technical Architect, ActionScript Applications at Walt Disney Online Studios Canada.
• bit101 - I'm the Flash Dev your momma warned you about.
• UnitZeroOne - Developer, Consultant, Speaker. Owner of UnitZeroOne and Core Developer for Papervision3D.
• richtretola - AIR and Flex developer, author, and community evangelist. Adobe Community Expert and InsideRIA Community Manager.

Mission Accomplished

A lot was covered here but as you can see I keep an extensive list of applications I need to get my Flash Development done. To help make setup as quick as possible I keep all these apps on a Thumb drive to cut my setup time in half. In latter AFT's I will show you how to tweak the Guerrilla workflow to make you a lean mean Flash coding machine. Also, if you know of any other apps you have to have in your arsenal please leave a comment. I am especially interested in PC apps since I work on a Mac.

Read more from Jesse Freeman.