Question

How can I build an Ant script to output swfs vs air packages, and to use different classes during the compilation based on my desired destination?

For example I am building an app that will be for the web, mobile and desktop. In some cases my classes will use AIR only components. I want to be able to create ANT build scripts that will not include those classes when outputting a swf for the web. How do I go about doing this?

Answer 1

Here’s what I did for a similar situation:

<target name="define.compile.task" depends="initflex">
    <presetdef name="flex.build">
        <mxmlc file="${src.dir}/${src.file.path}" 
                output="${output.dir}/${output.file.path}" ...>
            <compiler.source-path path-element="${src.dir}"/>
            ...
        </mxmlc>
    </presetdef>
</target>

<target name="parametrized.web.build" depends="define.compile.task">
    <flex.build>
        <compiler.define name="CONFIG::AllowAirComponents" value="false" />
    </flex.build>   
</target>


<target name="parametrized.air.build" depends="define.compile.task">
    <flex.build configname="airmobile">
        <compiler.define name="CONFIG::AllowAirComponents" value="true" />
    </flex.build>   
</target>

Then, I could define targets like

<target name="buildwebclass1">
     <antcall target="parametrized.web.build">
          <param name="src.file.path" value="path/to/MyClass.as"/>
          <param name="output.file.path" value="MyClass.swf"/>
     </antcall>
</target>

Or:

<target name="buildairclass1">
     <antcall target="parametrized.air.build">
          <param name="src.file.path" value="path/to/MyAirClass.as"/>
          <param name="output.file.path" value="MyAirClass.swf"/>
     </antcall>
     <exec executable="${FLEX_HOME}/bin/adt" failonerror="true">
         ... (adt arguments)
     </exec>
</target>

And if I have some factory of common code that instantiates the air class only if necessary, I wrap it with a CONFIG::AllowAirComponents { ... } so my AIR specific classes wouldn’t interfere with the web build.

Hope this helps!