Important tip: if you manually install plugins to Eclipse or Eclipse-base products like Flash Builder then make sure to copy the plugin's JARs or folders to the /dropins folder instead of the /plugins folder. The /plugins is kind of deprected for manual installations.

More information about the /dropins folder is available here.

Dirk.

Although it's more than 4 years old by now, the little TODO/FIXME Extension I created for Flex Builder 2 in 2006 still works just fine even in the latest prerelease version of Flash Builder "Burrito"!

Dirk.

I added a little but pretty helpful new feature to the Perspective Switcher Plugin: the Plugin will now automatically switch back from a Debug perspective to the previous non-Debug perspective as soon as the Debug session is terminated. This feature is enabled by default but can be explicitly switched on and off in the Preferences page

I tested it with the Java and Flash Builder Debuggers but should work with any Debugger inside the Eclipse IDE that is based on the DebugPlugin infrastructure.

If you used the previous version (0.1.0) make sure to delete the old jar file in the /plugins /dropins folder first before adding the new version (0.1.1) to it. Afterwards, it's a good idea to start Eclipse with the -clean switch.

Download the ZIP file here.

Dirk.

Update: current version is 0.1.1 - read below

In my projects, I tend to work with more than one language inside Eclipse. Sometimes it's up to four but typically at least two (e.g. Java and Flex). One thing that always annoyed me inside Eclipse is, that it does not automatically switches perspectives based on the current language (or IDE plugin). So I always end up in the wrong perspective, seeking for a certain view or getting nuts because some key bindings overlap and do something different in one perspective than in another one. Know the pain? Here's the meds :)

I'm happy to introduce Perspective Switcher, a simple plugin for Eclipse (3.4 and above) which automatically switches perspectives for you based on the rules you define. It is not specific to Flash Builder at all and should work fine with *any* perspectives inside Eclipse.

Also, as of version 0.1.1, the Plugin will now automatically switch back from a Debug perspective to the previous non-Debug perspective as soon as the Debug session is terminated (yeah!). This feature is enabled by default but can be explicitly switched on and off in the Preferences page (but you don't really want to switch it off I promise) - again, this feature should work with *any* Debuggers inside an Eclipse distro as long they are built around Eclipse's DebugPlugin API.

Essentially, in the preferences page the plugin lists all active perspectives in your distribution and allows to specify which file extensions should be associated to them:

There's no validation on the extensions and you can also assign one extension to more than one perspective but the plugin will only pick the first perspective it finds.

Also, when testing I found that changing perspectives when in a Debug perspective is probably not a good idea, so all Debug perspectives are not shown in the list.

The plugin only switches perspectives when an Editor (e.g. JDT's Java Editor or Flash Builders MXML Editor) gets activated, either by opening a file or by switching from one open editor to another (by whatever means).

To install, simply unzip the ZIP file and copy the JAR into your distributions /plugins /dropins folder. Then restart Eclipse / FB with the -clean switch. You should then see the "Perspective Switcher" entry on the Preferences dialog.

Current version is 0.1.1 - Download the ZIP file here.

Enjoy!

Dirk.

I created a little add-on for Flash Builder 4 which gives you a "Copy Fully Qualified Name" entry to the context menu in the MXML/AS3-Editors of Flash Builder. This is especially useful if you're creating new skin classes in Flex 4 and need to know the FQCN of the skin class to reference it in the CSS file for example (oh - and for item renderers, also very useful, and for a few other things it's useful, too btw)

I was a bit lazy concerning the name for this plugin so I just called it CFQCN

To get proper result you have to point the cursor into the editor (i.e. click on an element), then right-click and choose the "Copy Fully Qualified Name" menu entry. This will try to get the FQCN of the element (in case it's an element in MXML) or the name of the topmost class (in case of AS3 file or top-level MXML elements).

Some notes:

• Members, properties and imports in AS3 (AS3 class files and Script blocks in MXML) are currently not supported
• You really need a selection on the element you want tp copy the name from, i.e. the cursor needs to be placed on the element by mouse or by keyboard

This is really the first version of the plugin and I will add more functionality over time.

To install, download the ZIP file from here, unzip it and copy the JAR file to the /plugins directory of your Flash Builder 4 / Eclipse installation and restart. That's all. Oh, and yes it's free to use. Enjoy!

Dirk.

Just FYI, the TODO/FIXME extension also works in Flex Builder 3 Beta 2. If it does not work for you, then make sure to start Flex Builder / Eclipse with the -clean command line option. This should fix it.

Dirk.

The Web Tools Platform (WTP) is a great enhancement for Eclipse - especially since Peter Martin of Adobe Consulting released a new version of the FDS Plugin that adds support for Eclipse 3.2.x and Flex 2.0.1 (for those people who don't know what it is: Peter's plugin allows you to develop and debug your Flex and Java code in a single Dynamic Web project)

One thing that is currently missing in WTP (or to be more specific missing in JST which is part of it) is built-in support for JRun. Based on this excellent article by Alex Kazakov I created and packaged a plugin for Eclipse 3.2.1 that adds JRun 4 support to WTP / JST so you can now also develop and debug your Flex applications on JRun using Peter's plugin :)

I've only tested in on my Windows XP box and didn't even tested it completely - so just take it as is and drop me an email if something does not work. To install it just download the ZIP file below, extract it and copy the plugin to your Eclipse installation.

• JRun 4 Support Plugin (ZIP, 7 K)

Dirk.

I just tested my TODO/FIXME extension with Flex Builder 2.0.1 (Windows) and it just works fine - so do yourself a favour and throw it into the plugins folder of your 2.0.1 install :)

Btw, I'd be very happy if someone on a Mac could test it also - I don't have a Mac at my disposal and I'm curious if it runs on the Mac version as well (should work but you never know).

Dirk.

Update: although the title mentioned "Flex Builder 2" this plugin works with all versions of Flex and Flash Builder that have been released, including Flash Builder "Burrito"!

I finally found some time to finish work on an extension plugin for Flex Builder 2 which adds TODO/FIXME Task support similar to Eclipse's Java Development Tool JDT. This is the nice thing about Flex Builder 2: it's based on Eclipse so you're able to contribute to the product by adding your own extensions.

How it works: the plugin parses every MXML/AS file when opened and searches comments (both MXML and AS comments) for TODO and FIXME tokens (this search is case insensitive, so it also finds todo). The same action takes place after a file has been saved. If a token is found, a new Task gets generated with its message set to the comment and displayed in the Task View (To open Task View choose Window-->Other Views...-->Basic-->Tasks in Flex Builder 2 standalone and Window-->Show View-->Other-->Basic-->Tasks when running Flex Builder 2 as a plugin in Eclipse). Note: to really delete a Task you have to delete the comment - deleting a Task from the Task View does not kill the comment, so after you save the file the Task will reappear.

Installation: unzip the ZIP file and move the content of the plugins folder to the plugins /dropins folder of Flash Builder / Eclipse. Then, close Flash Builder / Eclipse and restart. The ZIP also contains a Test.mxml file which can be used to test the functionality.

Currently, the plugin only processes single-line comments but it ignores whitespaces between the start of a comment line and the TODO/FIXME token. I'm open for comments and enhancement requests, so please post them here.

Download Flash Builder Task Plugin 1.0.0

Last but not least: Kudos to Stephen Milligan and Mike Morearty - they gave me some great hints on how to build this plugin. Thanks guys!

Dirk.