This may be a problem that others have had before, but I've not been able to find the right search terms if so.
I am using LESS CSS (a CSS pre-processor) in my webapp, and I need it automatically compile a CSS file whenever a LESS file is saved, such that I can just refresh my browser and see the changes. I have previously been successful in doing this by changing the project properties in MyEclipse, in order to point at an external maven executable, and the generate-sources phase within my project's POM.
We're now in the progress of transitioning to GIT (very slowly), and as a step on that path, we want to ensure none of the project files are in version control. Obviously this means that setting up an external executable in the project files is no longer viable, if I want all developers to automatically have this happen for them.
Can anyone please point me in the right direction for solving my problem?
You could try the web resource optimizer for java (aka wro4j). It can apply less css processor (or many other processors) using both: runtime solution (as a filter) or build-time solution (as a maven plugin with m2-wro4j eclipse plugin which is capable of identifying incremental builds).
Alternatively, there is a lightweight solution which process the less resources on the fly, using the LessCssFilter
We are developing an app using flex 4.5. The app runs just fine (no performance issues at all) but it takes us forever to compile and build it. A minor change, like just add a comment or press enter in an mxml file and rebuild takes about 3 minutes. You just cant work that way.
It is a large project with about 1300 files. We also use Parsley as IOC container and a beat of cairngorm navigation. We also use Maven (Flex mojos) but I am talking about a normal eclipse build (Ctrl + B).
We separated some of the code to a different SWC and all of our graphics are stored in a different resource SWF.
Please, Do you have any suggestions?
Regards, Ido
Summary
Turn off auto-build
Close unrelated projects
Remap Ctrl+B
Encapsulate application domains
Turn off auto-build
First thing to do when you install FlashBuilder is turning off the automatic building "feature". The Flex compiler is waaay to slow to constantly build in the background unless you work on very small projects. It's in menu > Project > Build Automatically.
Close unrelated projects
Any open project eats away memory. Close as many as you can.
Remap Ctrl+B
Since you use the Ctrl+B keybinding to launch the build process, you should know that this will actually build your entire workspace. Every single project that is open will be built. When you have a lot of dependencies that's gonna take a whole lot of time.
That's why I remap the Ctrl+B combo to just build the project that I'm currently working on. A small donwside is that sometimes you have to go 'manually' build a few projects, but that's largely outweighed by the time gain.
Go to menu > Window > Preferences. Type "key" in the search box. Click the topic "keys" under "general". Now type "build" in the searchbox on the right. Select "Build Automatically" and click the "Unbind Command" button. The ctrl+B binding should disappear. Now select "Build Project", then select the "Binding" input field (lower left) and hit Ctrl+B. Save and you're done.
Encapsulate application domains
I don't have a single project that is bigger than 200 files (usually even less than 100). Since your project consists of 1300 files I assume that it is does not have one monolithic function. So you should be able to slice it up into separate libraries; preferably one for each application domain. This will allow you to compile sizeable bits of the application and has the added benefit of clearly separating some concerns within your application.
How to fix slow build time when trying to use the debugger on Flash Builder 4.6 Mobile Apps
I ran into the same problem. Here is how you fix it.
It seem when you build a mobile app with a Server Connection like PHP it writes all of the
files on the server Directory..
When it come time to compile the app to debug it packages all of the sitting in the server directory. To fix this issue do the following.
Properties of the project.
Flex Build Packaging
for this example Pick Google Android.
Package Contents.
UnSelect anything that does not belong in your project..
After doing this build time when from 30 minutes to under 10 seconds..
Ok, This is how we fixed it:
We deleted all the dependencies. Then, we added only the necessary ones. You won't believe how many SWC files were just there and never used.
We went through almost every action-script and mxml file, and deleted unnecessary imports (using CTRL+ O on eclipse). This is a lot of work.
We changed the buiders on the project configurations so that only Flex builder remains. There were more builders including Maven. Every builder makes everything slower.
That is it.
I'm using Perforce, if that changes the tune of the answers at all.
I'd like to implement a build process that, when a solution is built in a "release" mode, tags the entire source tree with a label and pushes the output of the build (DLLs, webpages) to a /build/release directory in source control. This directory should always contain the latest complete build, nothing less and nothing more, so I can yank that directory to production servers in its entirety and it's ready to go.
Now say I had a DLL in a previous release that the new build is not supposed to include. Does this mean the best practice for updating that /build/release folder is to check the entire thing out, delete everything in it, add the new build files, and sync it? Sounds like an obvious answer, but I want to make sure I'm not missing some other voodoo that might be a better way to do it.
I think you are missing the simple voodoo:) You should consider just using a plain old file system for your build drops. Source control is designed to manage change, versioning, and collaboration and there really is no need for any of this related to builds. The whole point to an build system is to be able to reproduce the source code and create the application at a moments notice so I would focus on being able to do that more than relying on the permanent storage of the output files. Be sure to back up the build drop folder structure just as you would the source control database. Use a folder naming scheme that includes the build number in the filename. I would store all of the builds (back at least several) because there are times when QA wants to restore an old build to test in order to compare features or resurrect a bug. Using this system every build gets a new folder so you don';t have to worry about deleting out old files.
I'd say "Yes" - you should to start with a blank folder structure for your builds (regardless of source control system).
I've got a decent computer. ( something with dual-core in the name and a lot of ram ).
Sometime FlexBuilder prompt the "builder project" loading bar only when i open a simple mxml file.
It's look like he does some difficult jobs... i don't ask for anything fancy. I just want the file open, in text mode.
Every time i hit ctrl+s, i fear the "building project who take forever" thing. I've disable the automatic build, but it's not convenient.
Another thing, more understandable. I'v got a Ant task who compile our code with the flexBuilderSdk. It's take forever ( like 2 min for 100 .as file and 20 .mxml file ).
For the two question : Is that normal ? Can i do something ? Because it's killing my productivity ! ( no, seriously ;-) )
Flex compiler performance is known to be pretty slow. They are making an effort to improve compiler performance for Flex 4. See the developer notes here:
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Notes+on+Compiler+Performance+Improvements
Compiling a Flex application is a 2-step process. First, the MXML files are compiled into the equivalent ActionScript classes. If you add the "-keep" compiler parameter, you'll be able to see all these files in a folder called "generated." After the AS3 classes are created, then the AS compiler turns these into bytecode in the form of a .SWF file.
If you have a slow hard disk (say a 5400 RPM laptop drive) that will also affect the performance of compilation. I would definitely recommend disabling "Build Automatically" and just press CTRL-B when you want to build. It's not very difficult to do that when you want to build, much better than waiting for a compile every time you change a file.
The above mentioned improvements have also been backported to the Flex 3 SDK by Brian Deitte. You can try this out at his blog. It is way faster.
There are some tweaks you can do with the Flex Builder Configuration
More here:
Link
Use the settings in [How can I reduce Eclipse Ganymede's memory use? and read the article calderas sent.
anirudhsasikumar mark a point : Improvement of the Flex4 SDK have been backported.
http://www.deitte.com/archives/2008/10/a%5Ffaster%5Fflex%5F3.htm
It's a little bit faster, but i encounter some problem with firefox then. ( Dont ask why ! )
The issue : The result SWF work on IE7, but not on Firefox ( unlimited waiting at the loading )
But a real improvement of the building is to use FCSH, to avoid compile the same file two time. It's improve the performance drasticly.
http://wildwinter.blogspot.com/2008/04/fcsh-wrapper-for-ant.html
I run Flex Builder 3 on a mac and as my project grows - the compile time gets longer and longer and longer. I am using some SWC's and there is a fair amount of code but it shouldn't take minutes to build and crash daily should it?
First of all, comments on some of the response:
There is no need to explicitly specify -incremental in Flex Builder because it uses incremental compilation by default.
-keep-generated-actionscript is a performance killer because it instructs the compiler to write out AS3 codes generated for MXML components in the middle of the compilation. File I/O in the middle of a compilation means unnecessary pauses and low CPU utilizations.
-optimize slows down linking because it instructs the linker to produce smaller SWFs. Note that -optimize=true|false doesn't have any effect on building SWCs because SWCs are libraries and have to be unoptimized.
I rarely mess with JVM settings because JVM knows its jobs well and tunes itself quite well at runtime. Most people make matter worse by setting various GC tuning parameters. That said, there are 3 settings most people understand and set correctly for their usage:
-Xmx (max heap size)
-server or -client (HotSpot Server or Client VM)
-XX:+UseSerialGC or -XX:+UseParallelGC (or other non-serial GC)
-server consistently outperforms -client by about 30% when running the Flex compiler.
-XX:+UseParallelGC turns on the parallel garbage collector. ideal for multicore computer and when the computer still has CPU cycles to spare.
You may also want to check out HellFire Compiler Daemon (http://bytecode-workshop.com/). It uses multiple processor cores to compile multiple Flex applications at the same time. You can also run the compiler on a second machine via sockets (assuming that your second machine has faster CPUs and more memory).
In my opinion, use more modules than libraries and use HFCD.
Hope this helps.
-Clement
There's no need to use mxmlc on the command line just to be able to add compiler flags. Right click your project in the Flex Navigator, select Properties and then Flex Compiler in the dialog that appears. There you can add any extra compiler flags.
Not sure that there's very much to do though, more code means more compile time, that's just the way it is. If you're not doing a release build (or whatever it's called in Flex Builder) it's unlikely that your compiler settings include optimize to begin with. Better choices to try would be -incremental (which only recompiles the parts that have changed) and -keep-generated-actionscript (which stops the compiler from deleting the ActionScript files it has generated from your application's MXML files).
I very much prefer using mxmlc on the command line (by way of Ant) compared to Flex Builder. Although I don't think that the latter compiles any slower, it feels more sluggish in every way. Using Ant also makes it possible to do more than just compilation when building, and conditional compilation (only compile a SWF or SWC if the source code has actually changed). Check out a blog post of mine for more info on that.
What you could try is the Flex Compiler Shell, another command line tool that can speed things up. Basically it tries to keep as much as possible in memory between builds, so no need to wait for things like the JVM starting up (the Flex compiler is a Java application). On the other hand this is sort of what Flex Builder does anyway.
In addition to the suggestions already mentioned, close any projects that you have open that you are not using.
Rich click on the Project in the Navigator view and select "Close Unrelated Projects".
Depending on how many projects you have open, this can lead to a significant improvements in compile time, as well as all around performance.
mike chambers
mesh#adobe.com
Slow compile time is most often caused by having large numbers of embedded resources ([Embed] or #Embed).
Option 2 on this article might help you: [http://www.rogue-development.com/blog2/2007/11/slow-flex-builder-compile-and-refresh-solution-modules/]
I created RAM Disk with workspace and it gives up to 10% of better compilation time. Not much, but something.
You want at least 4 gigs on your computer if possible, and make sure to override the default memory settings that eclipse/flexbuilder gives to the application.
If you're not sure how to do this, you can find the flexbuilder app in /Applications, right click and choose "Show Package Contents". Then go into the contents file and edit the eclipse.ini file. Edit that file have memory settings of at least:
-vmargs -Xms768m -Xmx768m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m
It's also worthwhile to go into the eclipse/flexbuilder preferences and to check the "Show heap status" box under Windows->Preferences->General (This is in eclipse with the FB plugin, I'm assuming it's also there for standalone FB).
This shows the current memory in the lower right of the window and has a little trash icon so you can force garbage collection.
I'd also suggest turning off automatic building of the project when your files change (you can force a build with cmd-B).
We had a huge project with quite a few modules files and performance in FlexBuilder 3 was decent with these steps.
Go to Project->Properties->Flex Applications. All of the applications listed are compiled each time (even though you have a default set). If you remove everything but the default (don't worry, it won't delete the actual files), it only compiles the default app. This resulted in a significant speed up for me. If you change your default app, it ADDs it to the Flex Applications list - adding to your compile time. You will need to maintain this list to get the quickest compile.
I always disable "automatic compile" for Flex. It compiles too much, takes too long, and so interrupts my work.
If you have many different project files and all of those needs to be recompiled, but you also have other projects open and don't want to close them always you're doing a build, you can also use Eclipse Working Sets.
Unfortunately, the default Flex Navigator does not support working sets. But you can open the Package Explorer with Window / Show View / .... Click on the little white downward arrow to the topright and select Top Level Elements: Working Sets. You can then add Working Sets (aka groups of projects). Each project needs to be in at least one working set ("Other Projects" being the default), but can be in several.
Now with Project / Build Working Set / ... you can instruct Eclipse to build all the projects in this working set, but none of the others. This is especially useful if you suspect your project references to be sometimes broken - otherwise building the 'topmost' project should trigger subsequent builds automatically.
As Clement said, use the HellFire Compiler Daemon. If you have multiple modules and more CPU cores on your machine it can compile them in parallel. Another option is to use IntelliJ (the commercial version) which offers the same feature.
The SDK 4.x.x introduced silly bug (see Adobe bugsystem, issue FB-27440), which causes projects with SVN or CVS meta data compile much slower than with SDK 3.x.x. On how it can be fixed, see here.
You may want to explore the command-line compiler found in the Flex SDK, mxmlc. As I recall, Flex Builder 3 seems to hide all the compiler details, but perhaps there are arguments you can append that will help you speed up the compilation.
For example, you may want to set optimize=false which will skip the step of optimizing the bytecode (perhaps reducing compilation time)? This of course comes at the price of performance and file size of the actual application.
More documentation on mxmlc can be found at: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/compilers_13.html.
Good luck!
I don't use Flex Builder, but I use the Flex SDK compiler everyday and I was wasting tons of time waiting for the MXMLC compiler to do its job until I found Flex Compiler SHell:
http://blog.zarate.tv/2008/12/07/theres-something-called-flex-compiler-shell/
Although in theory Flex Builder already uses this optimizations, might be worth checking.
You can use WORKING SETS to compile just a set of your components that are part of the application that you are changing and not the whole project
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=build_6.html
Usually the first build takes the longest, and then it's pretty quick after that. That's using Vista x64 w/ core 2 duo.
Otherwise, I am nearly certain a Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 3.2GHz upgrade processor would speed your Flex building up nicely .. :) :) :)