Take a peak at this quick tutorial to get the Adobe Flex SDK up and running. The Flex environment is a must have for web developers.

The first step to creating your Flex environment is make sure you have Java installed first. The command “java -version” will print out your current java environment. There is a variety of Open Source and Sun Microsystems variety there may be some trial and error as new Flex and Java SDK’s are released. If you build the Java environment from a bin file as opposed to using the apt-get tool make sure to update your environment in your “.bash.bashrc.” Just .bashrc in some other linux distros. Second lets download and install the latest flex SDK. http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/flexdownloads/ Now unzip and move your new flex_sdk to a directory of your choice. Edit your bash.bashrc and ensure the path matches the directory where Flex is installed. In my case flex was moved to /usr/share/ where I created a new fancy folder called flex. The important thing is the complete path reaches the bin folder. Make sure you use “chmod” to allow yourself rights to this folder. Now try the mxmlc command and verify it is seen. Make sure you close and open a new terminal so it sees your update .bash.bashrc environment. mxmlc -help should print out this help message. Now you are ready to try the Flex compiler! Adobe has  terrific documentation with very easy examples for you to play with and edit: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/index.html Copy text from a  example mxmlc you like a paste it in a text editor: I used Adobes FormExample.mxml:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>

<!– Simple example to demonstrate Form layout container. –>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx=”http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml”>

<mx:Model id=”checkModel”> <User> <FirstName>{fname.text}</FirstName> <DOB>{dob.text}</DOB> <Email>{email.text}</Email> <Age>{age.text}</Age> <SSN>{ssn.text}</SSN> <Zip>{zip.text}</Zip> <Phone>{phone.text}</Phone> </User> </mx:Model>

<mx:Panel title=”Form Container Example” height=”75%” width=”75%” paddingTop=”10″ paddingLeft=”10″ paddingRight=”10″ paddingBottom=”10″>

<mx:Text width=”100%” color=”blue” text=”Moving from one form field to another triggers the validator.”/>

<mx:Form width=”100%” height=”100%”> <mx:FormHeading label=”Enter values into the form.”/>

<mx:FormItem label=”First name”> <mx:TextInput id=”fname” width=”200″/> </mx:FormItem>

<mx:FormItem label=”Date of birth (mm/dd/yyyy)”> <mx:TextInput id=”dob” width=”200″/> </mx:FormItem>

<mx:FormItem label=”E-mail address”> <mx:TextInput id=”email” width=”200″/> </mx:FormItem>

<mx:FormItem label=”Age”> <mx:TextInput id=”age” width=”200″/> </mx:FormItem>

<mx:FormItem label=”SSN”>

<mx:TextInput id=”ssn” width=”200″/> </mx:FormItem>

<mx:FormItem label=”Zip”> <mx:TextInput id=”zip” width=”200″/> </mx:FormItem>

<mx:FormItem label=”Phone”>

<mx:TextInput id=”phone” width=”200″/> </mx:FormItem> </mx:Form>

</mx:Panel>

<mx:StringValidator source=”{fname}” property=”text” minLength=”4″ maxLength=”12″/> <mx:PhoneNumberValidator source=”{phone}” property=”text”/> <mx:DateValidator source=”{dob}” property=”text”/> <mx:EmailValidator source=”{email}” property=”text”/> <mx:NumberValidator source=”{age}” property=”text” integerError=”Enter Integer value” minValue=”18″ maxValue=”100″ domain=”int”/> <mx:SocialSecurityValidator source=”{ssn}” property=”text”/> <mx:ZipCodeValidator source=”{zip}” property=”text”/>

</mx:Application>

Now use the command “mxmlc” to compile your new mxml file: You should now have a SWF file of the same name: Great now view your freshly compiled swf with FireFox or opera: You should now see your Flex Form: _ Congrats! I hope this tutorial helped. If not comment on problems you are having below.