Scriptplayground Reviews » FDT 3.0 Editor

Overview

After searching for the best Flash IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for many months, I have finally found the solution. FDT from Powerflasher is an eclipse plugin based ActionScript editor.

This editor provides support for AS3 and Flex development projects with syntax highlighting, code hinting, code folding and Live Error Highlighting to name a small percentage of the overall feature list. However unlike much of the competing editors, FDT runs seamlessly on my Mac and PC without any special hacks or modifications. Mac support isn't done through a VM or similar environment, this is true OS X support because the Eclipse base is built as a cross browser solution.

FDT is easily one of the more robust applications that I have worked with, and it stands up to the challenge or looming deadlines by being a very stable and reliable solution. You can download a 30 day evaluation from PowerFlashers web site and a single user license will set you back about $480 USD for the basic and $640 for the professional, which is very reasonable considering the level of support and features this application comes with.

Installation and Getting Started

To get the real potential from FDT you can add the AS3 Classpaths to your project and gain the ability to have code hinting, syntax checking and templates. The Flex SDK (downloadable from Adobe) can be included in the application to allow the launching of Flex applications directly from FDT.

Using ANT or a similar compiler you can even export a Flash project straight out of FDT which eliminates the need for other software needed to be running and best of all, better performance from your machine.

How to start with CS3?

To create a new CS3 project you have to install Adobe CS3 first. FDT try to detect the installation but is only able to do so if you install it on a standart location. Create a project with the new project wizard. You can select the project language (AS2 or AS3). If you choose AS3 you can select a special version (by default only CS3 is availible, but you could add more e.g. for Flex 2). If CS3 is not availible the autodetection was not successfull. You have to configure the preference manual. To do this:

About the Company

Powerflasher is no newcomer to Flash editors, in fact they have been a powerful player and clearly is the solution to a mediocre editor that ships with Flash.

Screenshots


Custom Syntax
Editor
New Class

Error Preferences
Rename Context Menu
Rename Dialog

Select Package
Choose Superclass

Closing Thoughts

I now have this application installed on my office and mobile computers and have never been so happy with a workflow as this application provides. I was even able to install SubClipse and include my SVN into my FDT projects which keeps all of my code up to date and more secure.