Are You Using IntelliJ IDEA Flex Support?
Or am I one of the few people on the planet, who punishes myself with this half-baked support for flex that IntelliJ IDEA has, instead of just jumping the dreaded FlexBuilder ship, before I sink myself?
Okay, that was a bit harsh, it just seems to me, that there isn’t a day, without a new issue to be reported in the JetBrains Jira with respect to flex support.
Here are some of my current complains, and the list is far from complete:
- It doesn’t have proper, working refactoring, for even simple things like rename method or class or move, except for the vanilla cases, where all is private
- There seem to be problems with what I would expect as basic stuff, like warnings on completely correct expressions
- Auto-importing classes has never really worked satisfying yet, there is currently no support for completion in import statements and organize imports organizes nothing
- Import from maven poms is lacking just about all functionality
- The debugger does not work
And I am not talking about the current 7.x release of IDEA, which only have the slightest hint of something called flex in it. No, I am talking about the latest and greatest EAP releases of the upcoming v8 of IDEA.
Even though I battle with this stuff every day, I just so much want IDEA to succeed on this one, because I love the IDE, and I am sure, that if they put enough focus into it, they could do a way better job than Adobe on FlexBuilder. That said, I am not sure they will succeed on this one. Why? Because I am seriously doubting, that we are thar many users out there, of the flex support in IDEA.
When I look at issues reported in their Jira related to flex support, there seems to be a core of very few people, who actively give feedback on this. And more than that, nearly all, if not all, the issues are assigned to the same JetBrains developer. Now, he is working on it, because I get some of my issues fixed and closed from time to time, which is nice. There just seems to be so long a road, until even the basic stuff is there.
Sorry to be such a bitch, but it is starting to get on my nerves. So, how many are we, using or wanting to use the flex support in IDEA?
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Generally speaking Jetbrains tends to build exceptional quality products. I’ve been a Resharper and IDEA user for a long time and even though their earlier versions were IMHO better than they are now, they are still better than most out there.
And in truth, it is EAP for a reason. It’s not prod quality stuff by any means.
I agree though; the reality is that Jetbrains is a business, and needs to provide features / motives for people to upgrade. There’s not many Flex developers I think who will fork out the money for IDEA.
IDEA could definitely do a better job than Adobe! FB2 was a joke and possibly the worst professional product put out by a large Adobe sized company I have ever witnessed; people paid b/c there was no alternative. FB3 is better, but people pay for the same reason.
If you really want IDEA + Flex to take off, maybe you should start suggesting to Adobe to buy IDEA?
September 16th, 2008 at 22:44@javaguy44:
I agree completely with you, that JetBrains tend to build exceptional quality products. That is exactly why I want them to succeed with flex and why I stay with them in the EAP. Sadly, it is also why I become frustrated, when they don’t.
About the EAP: Sure, you are right, it is EAP. Nevertheless, when v7 came out, long time ago, it was mentioned in the features list, to support flex. I would say that v7 flex support is so bad, that it shouldn’t be listed as a feature. Not that long ago, JetBrains released Milestone1 of v8, as a public release outside the EAP program, that people can try out. On the feature list of that release, flex was listed all the way up as item 3 and 4, as new features. Struts2 and spring 2.5 support is listed AFTER flex. That should mean, that they mean something with it, and sure mean for people to try it out now.
And lastly: I have stopped suggesting to Adobe for the time being. They seem to only listen to themselves! I definitely NOT want them to buy JetBrains
September 16th, 2008 at 22:55At work I have to slug through using FB3 and eclipse which in both java and flex land leave a lot to be desired. At home java is done with IDEA and I ended up plunking out that cash for FB3.
Right now I’d be happy to see either Adobe or IDEA make a Flex dev environment worth the prices they ask. I think I’m spoiled because of the exceptional java environment that IDEA provides. If they could spit polish the Flex support with half of what the java support has they would RUN AWAY with the prize…
At this point I just wish somebody would get on it and produce a productive tool that works! A colorized notepad and primitive debuggers don’t impress me
September 17th, 2008 at 00:43Hi,
I’m not using the Flex support in IDEA for several reasons :
1. It was announced as a facet in IDEA 7, and yet, you can’t do anything but editing action script. To be brief, that’s not Flex support
September 17th, 2008 at 09:262. Planned for IDEA 8, which makes it mandatory to upgrade, which is too much for something announced for v7
3. unusable yet, as you said
My reception always was, that JetBrains builds exceptional quality products. That’s why i bought it, when v7 came out. Flex was advertized as a working feature at this time already. As the other guys said, it was a joke really. I dont think, that JetBrains is doing themselfs a favor, if they proceed like that. Unless they want to ripoff Flex developers.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:38Thank you for the constructive critic. I wish you provide particular examples when rename class / method does not work.
September 17th, 2008 at 14:52About rename, I was talking about rename file Clazz.as to Clazz2.as, which does not rename constructor nor class name.
September 17th, 2008 at 18:01Bummer, I was excited and encouraged about IntelliJ 8 support for Flex. It finally looked like it was going to be a decent option to replace FB3. FB3 works, but it sucks. Especially the debugger.
IntelliJ 7 Flex support is non-existent for Flex projects. Flex compiler is very dependent on what constitutes the main application without it the compiler can’t say what errors are there. If a file is not attached to the main application errors are never detected in FB3. It’s like it doesn’t exist. In IntelliJ since there is no project description/module creation it seems like it couldn’t operate correctly. Actionscript editing seems more based on the Javascript support than Flex. But, if we expect all of these features like refactoring, auto-completion, runtime error feedback, or a descent runtime debugger you have to create a project description to control the compiler.
I was really hoping for auto-generate property functions (ala getters/setters) something FB3 doesn’t do. I forgot how much time I save myself with Java using that feature.
September 18th, 2008 at 03:36To be fair, IDEA8 *is* way better than v7. And it does have auto-generate setters and supports some navigation. It also understands mxml, supports navigations in mxml etc. There are just still some of all the basic stuff missing, which really spoils the party.
September 18th, 2008 at 08:27Here’s an interview about IntelliJ IDEA 8:
September 19th, 2008 at 02:51http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/08/intellij_8_M1
I agree it’s a bit half baked. Based on IDEA’s track record, however, I am very much hoping that it will be what I want in the end. I feel, IntelliJ is the best IDE out there. I am really not excited about the thought of having to buy Flex Builder.
Is there a way to get a stack trace in the debugger when you’re at a break point? (It doesn’t seem like that works in flex debugging mode)
September 23rd, 2008 at 23:23Disregard my previous question… It seems the stack trace is there and is fairly obvious.
September 23rd, 2008 at 23:28I remember trying IntelliJ v5 for the first time and being blown away by it’s completeness and support for Java and have been using it everyday since. Since starting with flex things have definitely become a little better in v7 at least much better than v6:)
In terms of seamless integration…it’s far from complete. I find myself having to use a seperate ant build for compiling all of the .mxml and .as files then IDEA for the remaining part of the App. Hibernate, Tomcat etc support is great…So i think i’ll stick with it for the time being. Would be nice for tighter integration b/w .as files and pojos etc at the moment it’s like rolling the dice and hoping everything compiles and runs in the browser.
My other concern is whether there will be any support for things like Cairngorm?? This looks like it’s shaping up to be the framework of choice for flex dev.
Tried FB2 and FB3 trials…very painful especially on a slow mac.
October 14th, 2008 at 06:43I just started using Flex, coming from many years of server-side Java. FlexBuilder is truly “the suck” compared to IDEA. Sure the GUI builder is nice, but I need to write/navigate/refactor code! You’re not alone, and I hope JetBrains puts some more effort into Flex support. Whatever they touch usually turns out well, so I have high hopes for IDEA 8’s Flex support.
October 19th, 2008 at 06:39I use IDEA v8 for flex in our project. We don’t use mxml - only AS3. It’s a big pleasure to keep java and AS source in one place )We only have to write some ant scripts for compiling flex source and styles. Debugger works both with flex and java in one frame (8090 ver.). And , sorry, I hate Eclipse and FB3 based on it.
With respect from Belarus.
October 28th, 2008 at 20:26Flex Builder 3 is great for Flex - IDEA is great for Java. Yeah, it sucks you have to buy both, but I’m sure IDEA will get up to speed and surpass FB within the next 6 mos or so. I’m excited for that, as I’m sure others here are as well.
November 19th, 2008 at 20:28