GRINDSTONE MEDIA

I recently commented on how ant is by far the most versatile and flexible way to compile your Flex applications, take for example this sample swc compiler project.

I keep this project handy in my workspace, and if I ever need to compile or package my source code into a swc file (pronounced swik for the noobs) I do the following:

1. Copy my source code into the source directory
2. Open up build.properties and set the parameters

   flex-sdk-dir=C:/tools/flex3_sdk
   output-name=pixelate.swc
   src-dir=src
   bin-dir=bin

3. And open up build.xml in the Eclipse Ant view
4. Now I am good to go
5. Finally to build my project simply double click the “compile-swc” task in my Ant view.

This is obviously a very basic example, but consider how useful this becomes if you are developing a third-party api for a team of developers.

You can distribute your code in a neat tidy package and be safe in the knowledge that if anyone decides tinker with your code they only have access to available public members.

Don’t even consider compiling a swc file and expecting it to be completely secure and inaccessible, because where there’s a will there is a way. The point is that you have a working tool that you can distribute and safe guard yourself against bugs caused by other developers.

Download the above mentioned swccompiler.