Migrating from Flex Builder 3 Beta 1 to Flex Builder 3 Beta 2

The following entry walks you through uninstalling the standalone version of Flex Builder 3 Beta 1 and installing the new standalone version of Flex Builder 3 Beta 2 from the Adobe Labs site.

Before you get started…

• If you want to back up your existing Flex Builder 3 SDKs, go to the following directory:
  “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3\sdks\” and copy them somewhere like “C:\dev\Flex\sdks\”.
• Close any applications that may be using the Adobe Flash Player (including things like web browsers, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, etc.)
• Download the Adobe Flex Builder 3 Beta 2 (M3) from Adobe Labs, if you haven’t already. You can find it at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder3/. Save it to your desktop or somewhere easy to find. For the sake of this article I’ll be installing “Download for Windows (EXE, 311 MB)”. Due to the size of the installer, you may want to start the download while performing the other steps.
• Read the “Flex 3 Beta 2 Release notes”.
• If you’re the paranoid type, feel free to back up your existing project files at: “C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\Flex Builder Moxie\”.

Once you’ve followed the pre-install steps above (or not), proceed onto the following:

1. Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs.
2. Uninstall “Adobe Flex Builder 3″. If you have Adobe Flex Builder 2 installed, you can leave it. I haven’t run into any issues with having the standalone versions of Flex Builder 2 and Flex Builder 3 running side by side.
3. Uninstall “Adobe Flash Player ActiveX” and “Adobe Flash Player Plugin” to remove the Flash Player plugin from Internet Explorer and Firefox/Mozilla based browsers. To confirm the Flash Player uninstall was successful, you can open Windows Explorer to the “C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\” directory (I’m using Windows XP) and make sure that there are no rogue OCX files or anything. Usually I’ll manually delete any strange lookig files at this point, and only leave files such as FlashAuthor.cfg or the FlashPlayerTrust folder, if they exist.
4. You can close the Add or Remove Programs dialog box now.
5. With the installer downloaded, double click the EXE file (flexbuilder3_b2_win_sa_101107.exe) to begin the install process. The install process is pretty straight forward. Read and accept the license agreement, select a location to install, select whether you want to install the Flash Player plugins for Internet Explorer and/or Netscape or Firefox, and select if you want to install ColdFusion extensions for Flex Builder or JSEclipse (a JavaScript plugin for Eclipse). Next, review the installation details and click the “Install” button when you’re ready. Once started, it takes a few minutes for Flex Builder to install and set itself up. Now is a good time to walk to the kitchen for a tall glass of juice and a cookie. When the installer is finished, click the Done button to close the installer.
6. You’re pretty much there. Launch Flex Builder and make sure everything is happy. If for any reason you need to install or reinstall Flash Player, you can find the installers at: “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3\Player\win\”. Again, the ActiveX control is for Internet Explorer, and the Plugin version is for Netscape or Firefox. FlashPlayer.exe is the standalone version of Flash Player.
7. One of the first things you may notice is that your “Flex Navigator” tab is not showing any of your old projects. To reimport the projects into the existing workspace, select File > Import > Other from the main menu and expand the “General” folder in the Import dialog box. Select the “Select root directory” radio button and click the Browse buton and select your “C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\Flex Builder Moxie\” directory. If you want to select all files, click the “Select All” button, or if you want to only import a handful of projects into the current workspace.
8. Click the Finish button when you’re done in order to import the specified projects and close the import projects wizard. At this point you should see all your old projects within the Flex Navigator tab.
9. Flex Builder 3 beta 2 comes with the Flex 2.0.1 Hotfix 3 and Flex 3 M3 (Beta 2) SDKs installed, but if you want to install other Flex SDKs (such as Flex 2.0.1 Hotfix 2, Flex 3 M3 (Beta 1), or the nightly Flex 2.0.1 or Flex 3 SDK builds), select Window > Preferences from the main menu and click the Add button. In the “Add Flex SDK” dialog box, click the Browse button to locate an existing Flex SDK build. For example, if you saved your old Flex Builder 3 Beta 1 SDKs into the “C:\dev\Flex\sdks\” directory, you should be able to browse to “C:\dev\FlexSDKs\2.0.1\” directory to add the Flex 2.0.1 Hotfix 2 SDK. For more information on installing multiple SDKs into Flex Builder 3, see “Installing the latest nightly Flex 3 SDK build into Flex Builder 3″.

Congratulations, that should be it!

Happy Flexing.