When setting up a source control repository for a Flex Builder workspace, what do you consider to be worth checking in? Do you exclude the workspace .metadata folder but keep the .project and other project specific files? Keep both? Throw away both? Is there a guideline you use to decide which is worth holding onto or do you do it out of practical experience?
We check in the source files but not the binaries or settings files (e.g., .actionScriptProperties, .flexLibProperties, nothing in bin-debug, nothing in target directory). We build and deploy with Maven.
I check in the source directoy and the binary directory; nothing else. I set up my Flex Builder project to use a linked directory as my primary source; which keeps the code and repository independent of any project specific settings.
I have known people who check in all the project files. This makes it relatively easy to check out and then set up a new project; as you can import the project folder very easily into Flex Builder.
I can't say one is better than the other, though. It depends what you want to do.
Related
Background: Trying to set up my dev. environment in new job. Have subversion installed ok in Flash Builder 4, and checked out the project folders I will be working on. Work to date was developed in FB3, I'm going to be using FB4.
The folders/files that get imported to the project also include .flexProperties, .actionScriptProperties, .project, html-template etc (basically everything).
I would have thought that just the src, libs, lib-rsl etc should be part of the svn?
UPDATE:
Here is a good link to setup details for sharing svn flex projects using 2 folders, one of which has the checkout code, the other of which has folders linked to the first (but without the project/setup files)
It depends on the the development group. If everyone is provided the exact same set of tools in the exact same environments it can be ok to include the IDE project files. But if there is any chance that anyone is going to use a different environment (this includes a rolling upgrade of tools) then it is a bad idea. I recommend against putting these files in source control.
I'm using the Subversive plugin for Eclipse/Flex and I can commit the files correctly, but I have to rebuild Data/Services each time and reconfigure return types for each, etc. Does Subversion not provide a way to check/in out Data/Services or must these be rebuilt each time?
If I understand your comment to your question correctly, then it seems to me that it's not a problem of Subversion/Subversive, but a problem of Flash Builder's code generator which is generating/overriding your customized return types.
Maybe there are some Flex project settings files that are not committed. That would explain why you need to rebuild Data/Services each time you open the project.
By the way, if you do commit the project settings files, make sure all the paths are relative paths, so that the project settings can be shared among several developers.
You might find value in this Adobe devnet article about Flex project settings
My partner and I had different local names for the project we were working on so we had conflicts with the settings file.
I'm using git to track a project I'm developing in Flash Builder, and I'm wondering the best way to go about having it track it, especially regarding Flash Builder generated files, Compiler generated files, and source files that aren't necessarily flex files.
I had it set up to ignore all of the flash builder .project & debugging directories via .gitignore:
.actionScriptProperties
.flexProperties
.metadata
.project
.settings
bin-debug
and also treating any swf/swc files as binaries via .gitattributes
*.swf -crlf -diff -merge
*.swc -crlf -diff -merge
One issue with this setup is checking out this project and using
it in Flash Builder from scratch:
Flash Builder doesn't like it when
you have a project folder without
the .project files. Only way to
import the source into Flash Builder is to:
Create a new Flex Application
Smother the template files it
created (specifially APP_NAME.mxml)
with a git clone.
Where do I put libraries? From a git perspective, I'd like to have them in the lib folder of the repo so when someone clones the repo, everything just works, but from a local file system perspective I'd like to store all my libraries in a single location and use Flash Builder to reference them, as I may update the library or download a later version. Maybe I should put the libraries in their own repo and load them as a git module? This way I don't need to manually remember to update my Y library files in all X projects that are using them, edit: they will simply update when I update each projects' submodules.
And what about external swfs/flex modules? I've was sticking external swf files in the bin-debug folder for now so the SWFLoader class can find them, but because I'm .gitignoring the bin-debug folder, they don't come with the repo when it's cloned.
One final issue is where to keep the files for the server. Do I have them in a separate repo? I'm using php VOs' with AMFPHP so it's good to be able to edit the php files alongside my actionscript files in Flash Builder... but they don't belong in the project src folder.
The current solution I'm using is:
Creating a 'server' folder in the project root
Pointing an apache virtualhost at it
Setting the run/debug settings to http://APP_NAME.localhost
Then using the server folder as a replacement for bin-debug when the files get exported
The problem with this is I've got a big mess of compiler generated files, and non-AS source files in my server folder. It just doesn't seem like an elegant solution.
How do you set up git to work with flash builder smoothly? Could all this be resolved with multiple git repos/Flash Builder projects, or an ANT script or something?
Thanks.
I've found a good solution which avoids all of the horror of having untracked files and keeping a massive .ignore list:
CLEAN your projects before you git commit.
Simple as that.
Whether it be by Flash Builder or by ant, you should have the ability to clean anyway, so if you simply clean before you commit, the problem of generated files is solved. Duh.
In fact you could probably set it up as a git hook or something.
Typically for eclipse projects with any SCM, I initially check in everything including .projects, etc., but maybe except bin-debug in your case. Then just make sure that anybody who checks out the project never checks back in those .xxx files. For instance, when I use perforce, I first check out the .xxx files to a changelist that I never check in. Then check out the rest to a separate changelist.
Another tip is to use user defined library variables when working with build paths, etc.
I want to add my flex project to a SCM like Clearcase and then allow other developers download it and use in FlexBuilder.
What foramt do i need to place it in my clearcase so users can simply download and import into Flex Builder? Is there some way to create a .project file or similiar to allow Flex Recognise the project in clearcase?
I do not know Flex Builder project config files (I do know very well ClearCase though), but this question looks like "Do you keep your project files under version control ?" or "Which eclipse files belong under Version Control"
In essence, you should put any config file in ClearCase as long as you have relative path and/or variable for the other users to interpret.
A snapshot or dynamic ClearCase view will simply present those files for them to use, whatever they are. For instance, some eclipse .project or .classpath can be stored that way, while using linked directories.
So for Flex Builder project, one way to determine what file to store is to copy a minimal subset of those files in a new directory and check if you can re-open your project successfully.
Once the minimal set of file is determined, you can "add to source control" them.
I noticed that Eclipse (Flex Builder) generates hundreds of metadata files. Should I check them into my source control? They seem necessary, because if I delete them Flex Builder just opens up an empty workbench...
Some of these files plainly do not belong in source control (like .history files and some cache files). If I delete them my project opens up again without a hitch. But the list is long and there seem to be no clear separation between folders that contain files that belong in source control and those that do not.
I can't just shove them all into svn, even if I were to ignore the inefficiency, because Eclipse generates new ones constantly, with different names, which in turn also seem to be crucial for the project to load.
Can someone please enlighten me?
Don't check in the hundreds of metadata files. If you want to be able to check out the project in a way that it can just be imported, then check in:
.actionScriptProperties
.project
.flexProperties
And "html-template" and "libs". As Christian says, any resources you depend on. I usually keep those as separate Flex Library projects though.
I generally put all of my source code under src, and I check in src and all of its descendents. If my project relies on any external dependencies (e.g., the Cairngorm SWC, as3corelib, etc.), Flash/graphical assets, stylesheets, or resource files, I check those in, too. But I don't check in any generated (bin-*), intermediate or IDE-specific stuff, because having that stuff in source control doesn't seem to provide much practical benefit, and in my experience has only caused me headaches; in general, I check in the most minimal set of whatever I'd need -- given a clean FlexBuilder installation (or none at all -- for example, if I were compiling instead with mxmlc or compc) and an empty project -- to build the project successfully.
Most of the eclipse project files, like .project, .properties, everything in .settings, can go into your source control. As long as the files don't have user-dependent settings like file paths or local urls, you should be fine.
One method we use is creating local property files that don't get used in SCM, but are included in the ones that do. I.E an ant build file including a local.properties file which has local metadata.
What if the .actionScriptProperties, .project, or .flexProperties have user-dependent stuff in them? Typically this will be url or path information. What's the best practice way of externalizing this? I tried creating path variables, but this only works obviously for paths. Not for things like hostname, etc.