Alpha Plugin featuring quick fix support and error highlighting available for Flex Builder 2 Beta 3

With the release of Flex Builder 2 Beta 3, I can finally release a side project I’ve been working on here at Adobe. This side project is a new plugin that enables a couple experimental features that didn’t make the cut for Flex Builder 2.0. Currently these features are only enabled in the ActionScript Editor, but MXML Editor support will be forthcoming. The features include:

  • quick fix support, including:
    • missing variable and function return type inference and completion. view example
    • variable creation for both members and scoped variables when a variable declaration is omitted. view example
    • import insertion for undefined type errors view example
    • import removal when an import does not exist
    • modifier fix-up for incorrect modifiers
  • error and warning highlighting for all compiler problems

For those not familiar with the term quick fix, it’s a very specialized type of language intelligence that uses both compiler errors and parse tree information to propose solutions to coding errors and mistakes. Just as code hints are a type of language intelligence for writing code, quick fix is a type of language intelligence for fixing code.

Here’s an example:
You create a variable in ActionScript, but omit the type of the variable. When you save in Flex Builder, the compiler returns a warning and from that warning, we generate a list of potential fixes for this warning. By pressing Ctrl + 1, a list of completions is presented, proposing solutions to the coding problem:
quick fix example

As you can see, there’s a light bulb icon in the left gutter which is how Flex Builder 2 informs the user that a quick fix exists. As you can also see, the offending piece of code is highlighted as well. Errors work the same way, underlining errors in red and putting a red light bulb in the gutter.

This is just one example of the quick fixes that are included in this plugin and there are many more to help fix your code.
For more information and to get started, there’s a new page on this blog about this plugin.

Please remember this is plugin is not supported by Adobe Systems, and has not been tested by the QE team.
This plugin takes advantage of two extension points that I added to Flex Builder 2 which I will blog about at a later date. The extension points are not officially support, nor are they guaranteed to exist in future version of Flex Builder 2.

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Published:
05.08.06 / 6pm
Category:
Flex Builder Development