Amethyst is SapphireSteel’s IDE for programming rich web-based and desktop applications using The Adobe Flash Platform including Flex and AIR [1]. This page includes a link to download Amethyst (beta), plus information on its installation and use. Please be sure to read the installation advice before installing Amethyst.
Note: There may be a more recent ’edge’ release (an interim or experimental build) of Amethyst containing new or enhanced features. While the ’edge’ release is the most up-to-date version of the software, some of its features may be incomplete and less well tested than those in the beta above. For information on edge releases, please visit the forum.
NOTE: THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT USE THIS SOFTWARE WITH CODE OF ANY IMPORTANCE OR VALUE AND THAT YOU TAKE REGULAR BACKUPS OF YOUR SOURCE CODE. SAPPHIRESTEEL SOFTWARE DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING OF ANY DESCRIPTION WHATSOEVER THAT HAPPENS AS A DIRECT OR INDIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF DOWNLOADING AND USING THIS SOFTWARE.
Be sure to read the Installation Guide Lower Down This Page
Amethyst integrates a visual design environment...
...with a powerful ActionScript/MXML code editor, IntelliSense, refactoring and debugging:
Your First Few Minutes With Amethyst
For more information on the features of Amethyst (beta), see:
A commercial or free (‘Shell’) edition of Visual Studio 2008
The Flex SDK
Flash 10 For Internet Explorer is required for debugging.
Java
The Amethyst Installer
If you already own a commercial copy of Visual Studio 2008, download the Amethyst Installer and follow the instructions beneath the heading Installing Amethyst later in this article. If you wish to install the free edition of Visual Studio, go to the Ruby In Steel download page and download the Ruby In Steel All-in-One Installer. You may either leave all options checked in order to install Visual Studio with a 60-day trial of Ruby In Steel Developer or you may uncheck the installer options for Ruby, MySQL, Rails and Ruby In Steel. This will install Visual Studio alone. You may then proceed to install Amethyst.
Alternatively, if you wish to install a free edition of Ruby In Steel (‘Personal’) in addition to Amethyst, you may download and install the free edition of Ruby In Steel Personal (which includes a copy of Visual Studio) and, once that has been installed, install Amethyst.
INSTALLATION
Installing the Flex SDK
The Flex SDK is required for use with Amethyst. If you wish to install the Flex SDK prior to installing Amethyst, you may do so from the Adobe Flex SDK Download site: http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/flexdownloads/
Installing Amethyst
Double-click the Amethyst installer: Setup.exe Follow the prompts to complete the installation.
If the Flex SDK is not found you will be prompted to install it during the setup process.
If you already have the Flex SDK installed but the setup program fails to find it, you may click Browse To Flex SDK folder to locate the Flex SDK directory. This should be the ‘top level’ directory of the SDK - for example, C:\Program Files\flex_sdk_3.
If you do not have the Flex SDK installed, click Download Flex SDK when prompted. This will cause the Adobe Flex Downloads page to be launched in a web browser. You need to read and accept the Flex 3 SDK licence before downloading the Flex 3 SDK in a Zip archive. Once this is done, you should extract the files from the Zip archive. Now, in the Amethyst Setup dialog, click Browse to Flex SDK Folder and select the top-level directory (for example, C:\Program Files\flex_sdk_3) of the Flex SDK. Click OK in the ‘Find or download the Flex SDK’ dialog to continue with the installation of Amethyst.
Java
The Flex compiler requires that Java be installed. If you do not have Java installed, an error message such as ‘could not find Java 2 Runtime Environment’ will appear when you try to build an Amethyst project. In this case, you should download and install the Java runtime from Sun Microsystems: http://www.java.com/en/download.
[1] Adobe®, ActionScript®, AIR ®, Flex® and FlexBuilder® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
Which version of Amethyst are you using. Is it the last beta (available from the Amethyst download page on this site) or is it an ’edge’ release (available from a link in the forum)?
Which version of VS2008 are you using?
Which Flex SDK and which Flash Player (e.g. v 10 debug) have you installed?
I downloaded the Flex SDK and kept it in a ZIP file... when installing Amethyst I pointed to the ZIP file and the location of the "References" in Visual Studio (Flex Application) pointed to a non-existing directory...
I unzipped the SDK, added the correct "References" and all works fine now...
Can Not Save Project. No such interface supported.
20 January 2010, by Abhay Goel
Hi,
I just started evaluating Amethyst and ran into this problem almost right away. I’m not able to save the project. It bombs out with a message ".... No such interface supported."
Am I missing something?
Can Not Save Project. No such interface supported.
20 January 2010, by Huw Collingbourne
I’m not familiar with this problem. Can you give us more information. Which OS and which version of VS? You need VS 2008 and it is only fully tested with a commercial VS edition. Do all the other features of Amethyst work - solution creation, importing, code colouring etc? The more information you can provide the better as this is not a problem we’ve heard of before.
Can Not Save Project. No such interface supported.
20 January 2010, by Abhay Goel
I’m using VS 2008 on Windows XP. This is a commercial version and I use it for developing VB.NET applications.
Other features like solution creation, code coloring etc seem to work. It generates a default FlexApplication1.mxml where I add code and it runs fine on IE. However, I do not see a .sln.
While closing the IDE, it prompts to save the project and when I click on "Save", it throws a message box saying "The operation could not be completed. No Such interface supported."
THis is what I see in the About of VS 2008.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Version 9.0.21022.8 RTM
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 3.5 SP1
Installed Edition: Standard
Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 91851-335-6958563-60762
Microsoft Visual Basic 2008
Microsoft Visual C# 2008 91851-335-6958563-60762
Microsoft Visual C# 2008
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 91851-335-6958563-60762
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008
Amethyst Professional Edition 0000000000 licenced to Professional Edition (none)
Copyright 2008-2009 SapphireSteel Software. All rights reserved. http://www.sapphiresteel.com.
Let me know if I can provide any more information.
Can Not Save Project. No such interface supported.
20 January 2010, by Dermot Hogan
I think this has been fixed in our latest ’edge’ release (which is available via the forum).
However, I think you can avoid this problem by checking the ’Save new projects when created’ option under Tools | Options |Projects and Solutions | General.
I have a problem creating new Flex project with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. I’ve successfully installed Amethyst but whenever I try to create new project I’m getting the following error:
"There is a problem with package initialization. The error is ’Object reference not set to an instance of an object.’. Please contact SapphireSteel Software support for assistance."
We currently only support VS 2008. We anticipate the release of a VS 2010 edition of Amethyst just before or just after the final release of VS 2010 itself. Should we release a VS 2010 edition prior to that date, we will announce it here on the blog.
1) We changed the MSBuild targets file to Amethyst.targets in this beta. We realize that this a a breaking change, but we’ve roorganized the project XML quite a lot and restructured the MSBuild targets substantially and thought that this was a good time to do it. Hopefully, we wont need to do anything like that again.
2) + 3) I think this may be a problem with our new debugger, Cylon. Cylon is set by default, but you can go back to the FDB version by going to Tools | Options | Debugging | Amethyst the set Use Cylon Debugger to ’false’. I’d be interested to know if this fixes the breakpoint problem.
I may have fixed this in our latest mini-beta (#797), but I’m not sure. It seems that slightly different versions of the Flash Player have slightly different modes of starting up. Certainly, when starting Cylon in the Flash IDE, the Adobe Virtual Machine (AVM) was requesting things in a different order than with a standard Flex application. It’s just a matter of trying Cylon with as many different Flex/Flash combinations as I can find.
Cylon is only half finished, btw. The next job is to integrate it fully into the IntelliSense system and get the Attach/Listen mode fully operational.
Great Job, after just two days of using Amethyst it has become my preferred tool for Flex development.
I have a couple of quick questions:
1. Is there a way to change the content of the generated Main.html launch page into Main.aspx or default.aspx ?
(I’m currently changing the html-template contents in flex builder)
2. What is the preferred way to build or copy the output swf into a web project outside of the Amethyst project ?
I’m sure I can add a post-build event to manually copy the file; And I believe that I can change the OutputPath element in the amproj file.
These questions are derived from the fact that I build flex apps that are published and launched from .net web applications.
The aspx launch page passes config settings, mostly custom flashvars, from .net to the flex app as it launches.
I was hoping there was (or will be) an easier way to set this up that I’m currently unaware of.
Thanks again for the great software, you’ve made my Flex development trials for the year all worth it.
Thanks for the feedback - nice to know Amethyst is useful!
I think that most of what you want to do will be in the next beta. I’ll explain how it will work ...
1) There isn’t a way to change the generated HTML - it’s hard coded. But I can see a need for some sort of template that allows you to generate whatever file you want and substitute macros into the text. I’ll have to think about how that might work: there’s an extensive templating system built into Visual Studio and I’ll see if I can leverage that. But what you can do (in the next beta) is create your own .aspx file and have that automatically copied by MSBuild into the output directory and set that to be the launch page. The copying is determined by a file property - just set it to ’Copy To Output’.
2) In the current beta, there is indeed a Post Build Event property. You can put something like ’copy x.swf C:\a\b\c\y.swf’ in there and it will execute after the build has completed. However, in the next beta I’ve added a whole set of macros which allow you to do things like ’copy $(TargetPath) c:\a\b\$(TargetFile)_new.swf’ sort of thing. I’ve taken the names from C#. I think you can set the Output Path property to wherever you want, but I think it’s better to leave it in say the ’bin\Release’ (or where ever) directory because MSBuild will work better. Then copy it out using a Post Build Event.
The next beta will be out in a week or two - we’re aiming for the start of December.
1. I can’t find where to change the code style, the default code style that like flash designer’s is too unly，I hope change it to the flex builder’s style. but, how can I do it.
2. Flex Component Library Project cann’t build.
error : nothing was specified to be included in the library
I’m not sure which particular features of code styling you wish to change but, in essence, everything is user configurable. If you want to change the colours and fonts (or load up a predefined colour scheme), see the advice in these articles:
To build a library, you need to tell the compiler where to start, so you need to specify a file to ’include’. To do this, go to Project | Properties | Compiler and in ’Include File’ enter the file name then click ’Add File’.
I’ve just built the Flex framework library and I’ve included the FrameworkClasses.as file which just has a load of imports:
Are you launching this as a file or using the web server? If the former, try setting launch via server (Project Properties). This is described very briefly here: http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Amethyst-Beta-5-Flex-Refactoring. I’m afraid the Amethyst documentation is very basic at present but will be much improved by the final version. ;-)
If this works, please let me know. If not, maybe you could contact support so that we can get more information from you?
I have tried both launch options and got the same results.
It appears that not all of the necessary files are being placed in my /bin/Debug directory, which is where the application is attempting to launch from. Any suggestions?
The mechanism that copies files into the output directory isn’t implemented in the current beta (Designer beta 1).
However, I’ve implemented this (using MSBuild) in the next beta (due a couple of weeks, hopefully). The way it’s done is that you just mark files to be copied as ’Content’ (as opposed to ’Compile’) in the file’s properties (via the normal Property Window). If a file is marked as Content, it will be copied to the output directory. If it is marked as Compile, it gets sent to the compiler and if it’s set to None, it wont be copied or compiled.
In the current beta, the only way to do what you want is to use the Build Events (Project|Properties|Build Events tab) to explicitly copy the files. It’s a bit clunky, but it should work.
It only appears to be compiling the files in in my "Main source folder" and none of its subdirectories.
I see that there are other places to list source paths but have not gotten them to work for me
Ex:
Compiler Tab -> Include sources
Source Paths Tab -> Folder
I replied to this at length a few hours a go, but the system seems to have swallowed my message :(
Briefly, the compiler just pulls in what in it needs, looking for files under the ’src’ directory. If it isn’t needed, it wont be compiled. You can override this behaviour by seeting Compile in the File properties window. This forces the file to be sent to the compiler (or it should do).
You can see what the compiler is actually doing by looking in the Output Window.
While the automatic file copying is not in the current beta, you should be able to see properties for the file selected in the Solution Explorer. You need to click the file node in the Solution Explorer order that these are displayed.
I just tested out the Beta 6. It looks good and I like the fact that the import/convert existing project works fine. Now I have one question about debugging. Is there a way I can debug with a server url that includes query string?
For an example: if I set the custom server url to:
http://localhost/myapp/myapp.html?viewid=3
and debug the app, then I get the "Security sandbox vialoation" error.
If I set the launch page to the above url, then I get an error "Can not find the file http://localhost/myapp/myapp.html?viewid=3".
It would be great if there is a way to debug using similar url mentioned above like FlexBuilder does.
In the current beta, there is a problem with the Debug launch under the Web Dev setting because it checks to see if the file exists, but if you run without debugging (CTRL-F5), then you need to set just the Launch Page url in the Web Properties page, like this:
C:\Users\dermot\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\FlexApplication28\FlexApplication28\bin\Debug\FlexApplication28.html?xxx
(taken from a scratch project I’ve just created). You dont need to set the Virtual Path.
When I do this, it does launch the page with the embedded SWF and a ’?’ bit:
http://localhost:50295/FlexApplication28/FlexApplication28.html?xxx
I’ve just redone this bit of code in the development system and it all seems to work fine both with the debugger and without it, so it will be in the next beta.
I think the problem lies in the way I detect the SDK on installation. It looks like I’m detecting the *first* SDK I come across - even if it’s not the one that’s wanted!
I’ll improve that piece of code for the next beta.
The reason for the zero errors is that the mxml compiler failed - but didn’t produce an error message that we could interpret into a line/column position. You’ll find the actual reason in the Output pane (Select output from: Build). It may be something like ’could not find the compiler’ - the error message will be in a whole heap of output so it may not stand out, but it will be there. I’ll try and trap the more common errors like that and put a sensible error into the Errors List pane.
The reason why you are getting a PlayerGlobal reference error is that Amethsyt is looking by default in the wrong place. So my guess is that the SDK path is wrong (which would explain the compiler problem as well). So try looking under Tools | Options | Projects | Amethyst and check the ’Flex source directory’ setting.
I’ve been trying out Amethyst and overall it seems to work as advertised, except there are a couple of polish issues that are really annoying (understandable for a Beta product):
1. The Cut/Copy/Paste shortcut keys do not seemed to be wired up. Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V, and Ctrl-C do not work as expected when editing an MXML file (but seem to work fine in an AS file). Undo and Redo seem to work fine as well.
2. There is no "Include in Project" item in the Context Menu for Amethyst projects when right clicking on items in the folder view. This makes it difficult and annoying to include hundreds of source code files into a new Amethsyt project. Look at how C# projects behave with respect to Included/Excluded files to see how this should be behave.
3. In the Web tab of the Project properties, Amethyst should allow the user to select an arbitrary URL as the start page so that the user can more easily debug a Flex component that is integrated into a ASP.NET application or web page.
1) Yes. I was a bit too over enthusiastic about excluding certain commands and I accidentally excluded these. I’ve fixed this.
2) I wasn’t aware of this command - but it seems pretty useful, so I will include it in the next beta. We currently use a somewhat different mechanism to achieve the same end. If you click Synchronize on the Solution Explorer task bar it will include all files in the project directory in the project. However, this does include almost *everything*, so it doesn’t do quite the same thing as Include in Project.
3) Yes. I’ll change it so that an arbitrary URL will be accepted.
Your VS IDE integration looks great, just a couple of questions.
I was expecting to find a project>>properties option to enable debugging via the flash player as opposed to generating an HTML host.(like flex builder)
Is this possible?
I also had a hard time with the out of the box colour scheme.
The tools>>options>>environment>>fontsandcolors give me no listing for actionscript (and i have dark background that clashes with the preset) as a workaround I downloaded your amethystdark settings which work well.
The fonts are visible under the Text Editor selection. So they should be under Tools|Options |Enironment| Fonts and Colors then select ’Text Editor’ in the ’Show settings for:’ - they should look like
If you cant seen them, there’s something wrong somewhere.
You can override the default launch settings by going into Project|Project Properties|Web and using the ’Launch page’ text box. If you browse to the bin/Debug directory, you’ll be able to select the swf file directly. The Launch mechanism will run/debug that (in fact it doesn’t have to be an SWF file at all, it can be anything that can be run in a browser (also, you can change the ’browser’ to whatever executable program you want). There’s a small glitch currently with the Open dialog right now - the filter is set to *.htm - it should include swf and swc as well.
I noticed that Amethyst is using absolute paths in some of project settings, such as MainSourceFolder and ItemGroup/Include。 This would be a problem if two of us work on the same project, or when copying project from one machine to another with different directory layout. Would you please use relative path instead of absolute in the project file ones, if possible?
Thanks for the feedback. We’ll do this in the next beta.
In the meantime, if you want to share the same source from different locations you may want to use the Convert In Place wizard. That will create project files with the appropriate pathing from your home machine without changing the source code so you and colleagues can share the same code base each with your own personal project.
problem during creation of a new project in VS2008
2 September 2009, by Huw Collingbourne
We’ve just located this issue. It should only affect new installations (i.e. anyone who has never installed a previous Amethyst beta) and it’s a registry key problem. We will post a new version of the installer to fix this within the next few hours. I’d be grateful if you could wait until that is ready and then install the new version.
problem during creation of a new project in VS2008
2 September 2009, by Huw Collingbourne
We’ve just uploaded a fixed installer. Can you uninstall the version you have installed then download the new version (from this page) and install that. This should solve the problem.
It looks as though you are using Flex 2. We currently do not support the Flex 2.0 SDK. We only fully support Flex 3 and we will, of course, also support Flex 4. We haven’t yet decided what we will do in relation to Flex 2.
In the meantime, here is a fix that should work.
Unload the project (right click on the project node in the Solution Explorer and select Unload Project).
Edit the project file (right click on the now unloaded project node and select Edit)
Is there any way to change the run behaviour in debug version, to use standalone flash player that come with the SDK rather than opening up IE ? Since 1. I don’t like to use IE, 2. Id rather test the release in IE, and test the debug in standalone player. Thanks, Amethyst is nice.
First off, there are two ’browsers’ you can use. These are called the ’primary’ and ’secondary’. You set these by selecting Tools | Options | Projects | Amethyst. Go to the section ’Web Browsers’ and set the first (the primary) to :
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Players\Debug\FlashPlayer.exe (on my machine).
In fact, you can put any executable file in here - it doesn’t have to be a browser. By default, these are set to IE and Firefox. You can switch on-the fly between the ’primary’ and ’secondary’ browser by using the main menu Amethyst and select ’Use Secondary Browser’.
In addition, to use the Flash Player, you need to set the ’Launch page’ property in the Project Properties to point to your SWF.
To do this, select
Project | Properties and then the Web tab. Set the ’Launch page’ to the SWF file you want to run (you’ll have to modify the file filter - it’s set to HTML by default and so wont display SWF files if you try to browse to the file). Also, select ’Do not use web server’, otherwise a web server will be launched and it wont work.
Close the project page then press F5. I’ve just got a debugging session working fine here.
first of all, I want to say that what you’re doing is great!
I really like Amethyst (your debugger, etc.) and I’d like to add some feedback :)
When I played around for testing, I realized that I’m missing one specific feature, that I’m used to from working with FlashDevelop: Their code completion style. Especially the automatic import statements. It really speeds up the programming process a lot.
I think that feature would be a really nice addition to your product.
Are you acquainted with this, and what do you think about it?
We have been thinking about this (there is a similar feature in Flex Builder). To date we have held off from adding this is it is not a very Visual Studio-style of working. That’s why we have created the right-click ’import management’ menu which lets you add import statements by highlighting an identifier (or using a smart tag after you enter a class name). We are still thinking about the possibility of adding a Flex Builder/Flash Develop style of auto-import facility as an option (for those people who prefer that way of working), however.
Yesterday, I had a look at Ensemble Tofino. The nicest thing I can say is... It’s awkward. Watches can’t evaluate expressions like array[index] - no expressions at all to be correct, CTRL+F11 doesn’t work, not launching the browser it was supposed to for debugging, poor syntax higlighting, and so on. I’m wondering how Adobe thinks, that this plugin could really draw people from the .NET sphere to Flex. IMHO you guys are really doing a better job so far. Two thumbs up ;)
Incidentally, have you got the Flex SDK installed. Java will need access to that when compiling for Flex. You may want to check details of the prerequisites on the Amethyst download page:
Currently you are limited to making selections from a fixed set of compiler options in the General and Build property pages available from the Project/Properties menu.
In the forthcoming beta (beta 5), the compiler and build options will be provided with six separate pages of properties (see HERE) which will let you modify most common options using dedicated dialogs and browsers to make it as easy as possible. This beta will also have an editing panel to let you enter any other additional build and compile options ’long hand’.
So, in short, most compiler options can be set in the rather basic property pages of the current beta. All options can be set and edited in the completely redesigned property pages of the next beta.
Does it support incremental build?
I can find Incremental option in project properties.
But It seems not to work. Compile time is so long.
I hope that Amethyst use power of fsch(Flex Compiler Shell).
Yes, we support incremental build and you should see fast compile times when this is used. We call the compiler directly (bypassing the shell) which, in our timings, results in faster compilations than when using the shell. If your compiles seem slow, try doing a complete Rebuild by deleting the swf and swf cache fines under the \bin\Debug of your Amethyst project. Now in Amethyst, select Build/Rebuild (project). Look at the Output window (View/Output). Here you will find the command sent to the compiler. Here is an example of one of my projects:
You can try this out by bypassing Amethyst by pasting this into a command prompt (from the compiler directory to the end, omitting the doublle-sets of double quotes and the 2>&1 at the end. i.e.
Make some edits to your project source and run this command again. You should verify that this compiles incrementally (and will recreate the ’cache’ file in your \bin\Debug directory). You can also edit the options (set -incremental to false) and check the results (be sure to make changes to your project each time to force a recompile).
If you can compile incrementally from the command prompt, your code should also compile incrementally from Amethyst as the same command is being executed. Please let us know if you can give us any clues as to why you are not getting fast compilation with your project.
I’m not sure I understand this. This may be a bad installation? It’s something we’ve never seen before. If you contact support we’ll step through this with you to try to track down the problem:
We’ve now solved this one. The Amethyst installer doesn’t detect if the VS installation is not on the C drive so does not install the templates in the correct place in that case. The quick fix is to copy the templates from VS folders on the C drive to the directory of your VS installation.
Can you elaborate on this solution, please? I moved templates from where Amethyst installed them to the item and project template folders within my VS (2008) installation, and I still do not get any other ’new project’ choices.
On my machine, the templates are stored in "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates". So if you’ve installed VS on the D drive, say, then they should be in "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates". There should be things like CSharp, VisualBasic, etc. directories under there, depending on what you’ve got installed.
The current beta always installs templates to the C drive, so you need to copy those templates to the corresponding position on, say, the D drive. The same thing goes for ItemTemplates, which are file types.
Once you’ve done that, you need to get VS to install the templates. Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory where devenv is (on my machine, it is "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE". Then type
devenv /installvstemplates
which will reinstall all templates it finds in those directories (see here)
Update: I’ve just tested the template installation on the latest beta (out soon, but not available just yet) and it works fine (Visual Studio installed on the E drive and the templates were installed under the correct directory).
Is it normal to have a warning for each MXML element coming from the XHTML Validator?
i.e.
Validation (XHTML 1.0 Transitional): Element ’application’ is not supported.
Validation (XHTML 1.0 Transitional): Element ’button’ is not supported.
Yes, this is to be expected as the elements of Adobe MXML would not be known to the XHTML validator and you would specifically need to use a DDT to support MXML validation.
Just an update on my previous comment:
it happened only when right clicked on a MXML file name to "View Designer", answered YES to "The file is already opened. Do you want to close it?" and switched to Split or Source view.
The standard ’View Designer’ option in Visual Studio loads the file into the Microsoft HTML editor which does not recognise MXML. We will release a dedicated visual designer for Flex in Amethyst Professional at a later date but this is not in the current beta. See here for more on the Amethyst Designer which is currently in development:
I tried this both at home and at the office, but I couldn’t get past an error message that says:
"Error 1001. An excpetion occured in the OnBeforeInstall event handler of Sapphire.Steel.AmtehystInstaller. —> Installation failed: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."
I am running setup.exe and I have VS 2005 (VS Express at home), Flash 10 Debug, and multiple Java runtimes.
I am excited to get back to Flex development without paying an arm and a leg for the Eclipse plugin.
Thanks for the feedback. We obviously need a better error message! ;-)
Amethyst can only be used in VS2008 so it cannot be installed into VS2005. Moreover, it is a restriction of the VS Express Editions that 3rd party ’packages’ (deeply integrated IDEs such as Amethyst) cannot be installed into them.
However, you can install Amethyst into a free VS ’Shell’ edition. Currently we don’t have a dedicated ’all in one’ installer for Amethyst (that will come later) but we do have one for our Ruby product, Ruby In Steel. For now, if you need a copy of the VS Shell I’d suggest you use our Ruby In Steel all-in-one installer (you can omit the Ruby bits) and then install Amethyst afterwards.
Error 8 The "OutputDir" parameter is not supported by the "MXMLCompilerTask" task. Verify the parameter exists on the task, and it is a settable public instance property. C:\Program Files\MSBuild\SapphireSteel Software\1.0\Flex.targets 152 14 AirResizerApp
Error 9 The "MXMLCompilerTask" task could not be initialized with its input parameters. C:\Program Files\MSBuild\SapphireSteel Software\1.0\Flex.targets 137 6 AirResizerApp
This looks like a problem with the global assembly cache and could be due to an install or uninstall issue. Is this the first time you’ve ever installed a copy of Amethyst or have you installed one of the previous betas? If you’ve installed an earlier beta there may be some configuration data that was not removed on uninstalling. If you contact support: (http://www.sapphiresteel.com/spip.php?page=contacts) we can go through this step by step to try to find and resolve this.
This is great news. Will you also be working on integration between the two technologies? .Net forms accessing ActionScript classes and Flex accessing .Net classes?
Thanks for the message. Our first aim is to get tight integration into VS for ’normal’ Flex/AIR development tasks, optionally linked to other technologies such as ASP, Rails etc. at the ’back end’. Tighter integration between .NET/Flex may be a possibility beyond that and, needless to say, we are keeping a close eye on emerging Adobe projects ;-)
Will your plug-in work with Team Foundation Client? Can we store the source code in TFS and access it in VS like normal VS projects (check-out, check-in, annotate, etc)?
Thanks
Yes, it does work with TFS. Bear in mind that we are still in beta and it is not yet fully tested so there mat yet be issues to be fixed - needless to say, all feedback is appreciated.
Somehow, I am not able to either create a project from existing code line or import or convert flex project from an existing project. We have an existing code line for development which is pretty generic. All we have is the src folder.
Situation 1 : Project from existing code
This is totally no go, because I immediately get this error: Class not registered, CLS ID 81A1ED1C-76B9-4363-A838-F413FCCBB606
Situation 2 : Import or convert exisiting project
In this case I configure the application as either a library or application. In both cases, it errors out saying the import failed. The wizard didn’t return data.
I think the problem is that you are using the Shell Edition of VS 2008 and that does not come with the wizard dll (microsoft.visualstudio.importprojectfolderwizard.dll) which is used in some of the importing work.
There’s not much we can do about this, apart from putting a better error message in (which I will do). Microsoft doesn’t give us the right to distribute this dll, which only comes with full Standard Edition of VS 2005 or 2008. I’ve just checked and it doesn’t come with the Express Edition either.
The bottom line is that the import functionality will only work with a paid for (or similar) version of VS.
Import and Convert both require a commercial edition of VS as they both use the same hooks into the VS Wizard. To use existing code with the free VS Shell and Amethyst you should create an empty project in the original directory and synchronize/refresh to add all the existing files to the empty Amethyst solution or select specific files by right-clicking in the solution explorer and adding the files you need.
Thanks. Sounds a good solution to me. But in Beta 5, there is no option to create an empty Amethyst solution, unless I am missing something somewhere. All the options that I have under Amethyst are :
When I said an empty solution I meant a basic Flex (or other) project whose only purpose is to provide a ’home’ for your existing code files. That is, create a Flex project in the home directory of the existing source code - this will cause VS to create the relevant project and solution files with no (or only one very basic) source files in it. Then you can synchronize/refresh or add existing source files to that project.
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