Flash CS3 Documentation

Programming ActionScript 3.0 > Getting started with ActionScript > Building applications with ActionScript > The ActionScript development process

The ActionScript development process

No matter whether your ActionScript project is large or small, using a process to design and develop your application will help you work more efficiently and effectively. The following steps describe a basic development process for building an application that uses ActionScript 3.0:

1. Design your application.

   You should describe your application in some way before you start building it.

2. Compose your ActionScript 3.0 code.

   You can create ActionScript code using Flash, Flex Builder, Dreamweaver, or a text editor.

3. Create a Flash or Flex application file to run your code.

   In the Flash authoring tool, this involves creating a new FLA file, setting up the publish settings, adding user interface components to the application, and referencing the ActionScript code. In the Flex development environment, creating a new application file involves defining the application and adding user interface components using MXML, and referencing the ActionScript code.

4. Publish and test your ActionScript application.

   This involves running your application from within the Flash authoring or Flex development environment, and making sure it does everything you intended.

Note that you don't necessarily have to follow these steps in order, or completely finish one step before working on another. For example, you might design one screen of your application (step 1), and then create the graphics, buttons, and so forth (step 3), before writing ActionScript code (step 2) and testing (step 4). Or you might design part of it, and then add one button or interface element at a time, writing ActionScript for each one and testing it as it's built. Although it's helpful to remember these four stages of the development process, in real-world development it's usually more effective to move back and forth among the stages as appropriate.

Flash CS3