ActionScript 3 and MXML for Nova

🚀 Work In Progress 🚀

This extension brings ActionScript 3 and MXML support to Panic Nova.

🆕 Version 0.11: Introduced SDK list management and per-Task SDK selection.

The goal was to be able to use all of my old Adobe Flash Builder projects and convert them to Nova's workflow. I wanted to be able to build and run projects in Nova without additional setup, just by importing the Flash Builder settings when opening the project. (It's pretty close to it!)

✨ Features

• 🐛 Debugging - Via SWF Debug

• 🖍️ Syntax Highlighting

• 📁 Code Folding

• 📚 Symbols - Note: Self-closed MXML and children nodes do not show up correctly in the hierarchy.

• ⚠️ Issues - Via AS3MXML

• 🧪 Language intelligence - Via AS3MXML

• 💡 Completions for the following:

• ActionScript 3

• MXML - Note: Still a little wonky

• AIR Descriptor XML - Include descriptions on most of the AIR Descriptors tags!

• 📎 Clips

• 🧩 SDK Management - Starting with v0.11, the extension uses a list of SDKs

• ▶️ Tasks

• Use Nova's Clean/Build/Run for AIR desktop project, mobile project (currently, only through Desktop simulator), and Flash web based project (using SWFObject from the AIR SDK or a very basic page using Ruffle). Also, limited support for packaging with ANEs.

• Tasks can each have their own SDK when building

• Tasks can also have different main application files and output to different folders

• 📦 Exporting AIR Packages

• AIR, AIRI, Captive bundles, and native installer for Mac should work (untested for submitting to app stores).

• Android and iOS packaging should work (untested for App Store submission).

• 🧰 ANEs - Should allow for using ANEs when building/running and for exporting release builds.

• 📜 Import Flex/Flash Builder Projects

• 🗞️ Creating New Project

☑️ Todo

• MXML - Nova shows the MXML fine on first load, however, after saving it sometime flags a lot of issues.
• Launching AIR projects on actual devices - Android and iOS
• Locale - Currently set to use en_US
• Themes - Importing Flash Builder projects should store the right value, but currently not honored during builds.
• Library - Automatically managing library builds
• Workers & Modules - I personally never used them, but if you want to help out and have a project that did, contact me!

📝 Notes

For Issues, Language Intelligence and Completions, the LSP used is BowlerHatLLC/vscode-as3mxml v1.23.0.

AS3MXML requires an asconfig.json in the project folder. The extension will ask when opening the project if it should attempt to auto-generate one or if you prefer to maintain it manually. NOTE: If you have used the VSCode extension, and have one already, you can disable the automatic generation but if you switch between Tasks it may not function properly.

For Debugging, Bowler Hat's SWF Debug v1.11.0 is used.

For Cleaning/Building/Running and Export Packaging are done by this extension using binaries from the (Harman) Adobe Air or Flex SDK: - mxmlc for compiling of Flash and AIR project and packaging, - compc is used for compiling libraries - adt is used for running (checking for devices and making certificates)

📋 Requirements

ActionScript 3 and MXML for Nova requires the following (besides Nova) to be installed on your Mac:

• Java (JDK 11+) - AS3MXML requires it, and it also avoids issues with mxmlc in some SDKs returning "Error: null" when using Java 1.8.

• (Harman) Adobe Air or Flex SDK - Default path is ~/Applications/AIRSDK (but can be changed by installing SDKs)

• Rosetta 2 (for Apple Silicon Macs) - Required to run SDK tools

Optional

These are only needed if you plan on running Flash Player projects:

• Flash Player (Standalone) - If trying to run Flash projects

• Ruffle - Can also run Flash projects. NOTE: There may be some additional prompting to allow it to run the projects if you launch it from Nova.

• Old Chrome/Chromium with PPAPI Flash Player - Version prior to V88 should be able to run in browser

🚀 Usage

Open an *.as, or *.mxml and it should work. However, there are a few things that need to be setup to get the full functionality:

🧩 SDK Setup

Starting with v0.11, SDKs are now managed through a global SDK list, making it easier to install, remove, and select AIR or Flex SDKs without manually editing paths. Once SDKs are installed, you can even select which SDK to use per Task if needed.

If you’re upgrading from an earlier version, your previous Default SDK is automatically migrated into the Installed SDKs list.

The first SDK in that list now acts as your default SDK.

Managing SDKs

Although you can edit the Installed SDKs list manually, it’s recommended to use these commands instead, either from the Extensions → ActionScript 3 menu or the Command Palette:

• ➕ Install SDK - Use to add an SDK. If you already have one installed, it will ask whether to make it the new default or simply add it.
• ✔️ Change Default SDK - Sets which SDK acts as the default. If a project or task doesn't specify one, this SDK will be used.
• ➖ Remove SDK - When removing, you’ll be prompted to select which SDK to delete from the list. If you remove the first SDK in the list (the Default SDK), the extension automatically promotes the next SDK and displays a notification.
• ➰ Reset SDK List - This removes all installed SDKs and will look for one in ~/Applications/AIRSDK

After installation, the SDK appears in your Installed SDKs list in the extension’s preferences.

The first SDK in the Installed SDKs is always treated as the Default SDK, unless a specific one is set in the Project or Task preferences.

Managing Installed SDKs Manually

You can view or modify your installed SDKs manually:

1. Go to Extensions → Extension Library...
2. Select ActionScript 3, then open the Preferences tab
3. Scroll to Installed SDKs to view or edit the list

To change the Default SDK, make sure you drag the path up to the top of the list!

SDK Selection per Task

Each Task (except Library Tasks) can use its own SDK, selectable from a dropdown in the Task Preferences. This allows you to build different targets (desktop, mobile, web) with different SDK versions within the same project.

To configure it:

1. Go to Project → Tasks → Edit Task...
2. Select the Task (e.g. AIR - Desktop, AIR - Android, Flash, etc.)
3. Under Use a specific SDK for this task, choose an SDK from the dropdown.

If set to None, the Task automatically uses the default SDK (the first entry in the Installed SDKs list).

Library Tasks always use the Project SDK and cannot override it.

Code Intelligence and Issues

Since the LSP AS3MXML requires an asconfig.json for code intelligence, completions, and issues, you will need a file in your project's root. When opening a project you will get prompted:

• Automatic - If you select this, when project's settings are changed, the extension will modify the asconfig.json. If there is an existing asconfig.json, it will be backed up and timestamped.

• I'll Maintain it - This will not create or modify an asconfig.json file. Just remember, you need one for code intelligence and issues!

• Cancel - Skip, but will prompt you every time you open the project.

If the extension handles your asconfig.json, only the options used by this extension are changed. Since the building is not handled by AS3MXML, most of the compiling and packaging setting are not modified.

Making Nova feel more like Flash Builder

There are some additional options to make Nova feel more Flash Builder like are also options that you can change. These will affect projects that have been either created with this extension or imported from Flash Builder:

• Open output on run - This opens the report window when you run a Task, similar to the Console window in Flash Builder

• Build on run - This will force building before running

⚙️ Import Flash Builder project

While Flex Builder / Flash Builder are no longer supported by Adobe, this extension allows users to migrate their existing project for use in Panic Nova. If your project contains .actionScriptProperties, .project, and .flexProperies or .flexLibProperies, the extension defaults to prompting you to import the settings:

• Yes - Converts the Flash Builder project and modify the Nova project's settings.

• Never - Will not import and won't ask again.

• Cancel - Will not import, but will ask you next time.

If you want, you can also change this setting in the Extensions → Settings → Additional Options... → Prompt to import Flash Builder projects and disable it.

You can also use the menu option Extensions → ActionScript 3 → Import Flash Builder project... to change your project's settings to those used by a Flash Builder project whenever you need to.

SDKs

If the import reads the name of the SDK from the Flash Builder project, it will first remind you that it cannot find your project's SDK settings:

Then it will prompt you with:

• Install an SDK - Will bring up the requestor to install an SDK.
• Remove this setting - Will remove the setting in the Nova project (not the imported Flash Builder one) which will end up using the Default SDK.

• Ignore for now - This will just dismiss the message. If you need to either install it yourself or will have to change the project's SDK setting:

• Go into your Project → Project Settings...

• Scroll down to the Compiler → AIR/Flex SDK version.

Additional Notes about project import

The importing may also import may also setup more Tasks than needed, especially if was a mobile project. If you run into building issues like below, it may be that you need to change the Task to a mobile device Task and try building/running. Feel free to remove the desktop AIR task.

Old Flex/AIR SDKs

Prior to AIR SDK 20, some of the executables were still 32bit. Unfortunately, these won't run on anything after Mac OS 10.5. If you are using an older version of an SDK, you will get a warning about this:

• Understood - The message will pop up every time you open the project
• Don't Remind Me - This will not show up again, unless you change the SDK that is being used. It will be reset every time you change SDKs.

That doesn't mean it won't still build, but if you try to play or package it, it may fail:

Click on the show reports and if you see something like this:

This means that ADL is still 32bit, and won't run. If you want to also run from Nova, you will need to update your SDK to AIR 20+. Then you will need to update your app.xml for the namespace, but if it's really old you may need to include a <versionNumber> element (and make sure it's only numbers). Don't worry, the extension should remind you!

🆕 New Projects

You can also use the menu option Extensions → ActionScript 3 → Create New AS3/Flex Project....

• Flex Projects - Creates an MXML based project. It will ask if you want to make it an AIR or Flash based project.

• Flex Library - Lets you create an ActionScript based library in one of two flavors:

• Generic - Can be used with either web, desktop, or mobile projects

• Mobile - Can only be used with mobile application

• Flex Mobile Project - Creates an MXML based mobile project, which you decide how the views are based:

• Tabbed - Includes a tab bar to switch between views in the application
• View - Offers different views that can be switched in the application

• Blank - Simple, one view for displaying the application

• ActionScript Project - It will ask if you want to make it an AIR or Flash based project.

• ActionScript Mobile Project - Creates an AIR based mobile application

🎨 Themes Support is Incomplete

Halo Theme issues

NOTE: Currently, when importing from Flash Builder it detects and stores theme information, but automatic inclusion during builds isn’t yet implemented!

There is an option that will allow you to build older Flex 3 projects that require embedding Halo with the build. If you try to build and run into errors that say something like is only supported by type ... with the theme(s), as shown here:

you can go to the project's preferences and check the option:

This will force mxmlc to compile and embed the Halo theme, allowing Flex 4 to set some styles that can only be modified if the halo.swc is compiled with it!

🔐 Certificates

The extension has the ability to generate certificates for self signing AIR packages using ADL. To create a self-signed certificate: - Go to Extensions → ActionScript 3 → Create new Certificate

Nova will then prompt you with several questions and allow you to generate a new self-signing certificate.

If your project or Tasks have certificates, you can store a certificate password in your Keychain: - Go to Extensions → ActionScript 3 → Store Certificate Password

If there is more than one certificate, you will get a prompt to select which certificate to store. You must do it one at a time.

To clear the certificate password from your Keychain: - Go to Extensions → ActionScript 3 → Clear Certificate Password

If you have stored one or more certificates, then it will prompt to select "All" or a particular certificate to remove.

📦 Export Release Build

This allows you to package AIR projects. Make sure you have your certificate created, if not, then take a look above!

If you have multiple Tasks, and you try to export a release build it will ask which one you want. The extension will also store the last one selected, so it will pick that by default.

Next, it will prompt you for you certificate password, and if it's good, it will ask you if you want to use it just this one time, save it to your Keychain, or use for the session.

Android Air Flair

By default, when packaging for Android, air. is prepended to the application ID. This can be toggled in the Android Task.

Timestamp Errors

One minute it works, next minute it doesn't.

If just testing locally on your own devices, you can just change the project's settings to skip the timestamp or you can supply your own RFC3161-compliant timestamp server URL. Go to

1. Project → Project Settings...
2. Scroll down to the Build Packaging section:

⚙️ Configuration

Remember, there's a ton of configs, and in different places:

• Global preferences - Open Extensions → Extension Library... then select ActionScript 3's Preferences tab.

• Project preferences - You can also configure preferences on a per-project basis in Project → Project Settings....

• Task preferences - Tasks also have a bunch of options too! Don't miss out on Project → Tasks → Edit Task... or if you click on the Task dropdown and selecting Edit Task... and then selecting the appropriate Task.

▶️ Tasks

Application Tasks

Tasks play an important role in build/run as well as exporting of packages. There are different ones available, based on how you plan to run and or package your project. Each project can also include multiple Task, so you can easily switch between building one project for multiple devices. The option to Export Release Build will ask which Task to export.

As of v0.8.2, you can now set custom build/run main application files and destination folders, allowing you to build/launch multiple Tasks at the same time with a different project.

As of v0.11.0, you can now specify a specific SDK to use for that task.

This can be useful if you want to build and run a desktop, Android and iOS build from the same code base at the same time!

• AIR - Desktop builds.

• AIR - Android - Packaging for Android devices.

• AIR - iOS - Packaging for iOS devices.

• Flash - Web Builds (supports SWFObject and Ruffle)

If building a Flash project and using the Ruffle template for web, you will need to use Nova's External Preview option to run since Ruffle does not allow the use of file:/// protocol for loading SWFs in a browser.

Also, don't forget that closing the window on Flash Player, it does not quit it so Nova will still think the Task is running. If you go to run again, you may want to Stop so that it will only have one process running, or you can Add if you want to have multiple things open. It's kinda useful if you need to compare your changes.

In the Global preferences setting, you can set up the locations of Flash Player, Ruffle, and a old browser to use for launching if you scroll down to the Flash Player Run/Debug section:

If you edit the Task settings, you can change how to launch it:

Flex Library Task

• Library - This can be used to make an Flex library (NOTE: Not fully tested, and needs some more work.)

💡 Tips and Tricks

Viewing trace() output

1. Going into Project → Tasks → Edit Task...
2. Select the Task you want.
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom, change the Task's Open Report drop down to On Run.

Then a window with the output will show up when you run:

Force build before running

1. Going into Project → Tasks → Edit Task....
2. Expand the Task you want to modify.
3. Select the Run option.
4. Then you can check off Build before running.

🏆 Acknowledgements

This extension uses:

• AS3MXML: by Bowler Hat LLC - John Tynjala

• SWF Debug: by Bowler Hat LLC - John Tynjala

• Ruffle: A link to the CDN with the nightly build is included if you make a Flash Task and select the use Ruffle.

⚖️ Disclaimer

This extension is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Adobe Inc or HARMAN International.

"Adobe", "Flash", "Flash Player", "Flex Builder", "Flash Builder", and "Adobe AIR" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Changelog

The format is based on Keep a Changelog 1.1 and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning 2.0.

[0.11.1] - 2025-10-21

Fixed

• Building for iOS failed because of unsupported option of "-tsa"

[0.11.0] - 2025-10-14

Added

• Now uses a list of installed SDKs instead of one line for entering the location
• This will move the "Default AIR SDK" to the first "Installed SDKs" automatically if updating from an older version
• Warns that code intelligence may not work when open ActionScript files outside of a project
• Android and iOS Tasks can detect devices and store them (still need to implement running on the device...)

Changed

• Task like AIR, Flash, AIR - iOS and AIR - Android can have a different SDK used for building
• Modified how the -app.xml is changed so it should work if you have a mix of Flex and ActionScript Tasks and want to use the same project
• Android and iOS device simulator lists are stored in a JSON file (so eventually we can modify it)
• Updated NS3X2J to match Ant extension's code base
• Updated AS3MXML to v1.23.0 and SWF Debug to v1.11.0

Fixed

• Exporting a package with an empty custom ANEs would fail
• Exporting with ANEs would try to include unpacked ANEs instead
• Does not ask to import Flash Builder if a file is opened outside of a project
• Creating new Flex Mobile projects

[0.10.1] - 2025-07-01

Added

• When building for desktop, if the descriptor doesn't have icons for 16x16, 32x32, 48x48, and 128x128, warn that the app icon will be an empty, default Mac icon

Fixed

• If packaging failed, no notice would show up

[0.10.0] - 2025-06-01

Added

• Added initial support for debugging
• Added note about AIR flair option in Android build
• ANEs are packaged with export project

Changed

• Includes DPI to simulator devices
• ANEs are extracted to a temp directory

Fixed

• determineProjectUUID() used nova.crypto which was only available in Nova 10, added check and alternate way to generate uuid for Nova 9 and below
• Import Flash Builder adds ANEs correctly to Tasks.
• If using an different AIRSDK for a Task, the descriptor would check the project's AIRSDK version instead of the one for the Task.

[0.9.0] - 2025-04-13

Fixed

• Variable without declarations broke syntax highlighting
• When exporting, sometime the workspace's path would be appended twice

Added

• MXML now has CSS highlighting style block
• Can now have custom build/run folder per task
• Can create new ActionScript and Flex projects
• Added options for new projects and an import Flash Builder to set build on run and show output on run options

[0.8.1] - 2025-03-02

Fixed

• Storing password in keychain for certificates

Added

• Includes homepage and repo in extension

[0.8.0] - 2025-02-25

Added

• More work on getting AS3MXML integrated
• More documentation in README.md
• Added "Clips" for completion of AS3/MXML content (would have liked to do it through Completions XMLs, but they would not show up properly)
• Added building and running Flash projects.
• Added building of Library projects.
• Prompts to import Flash Builder projects when opening
• Extension preference, to suppress asking to import Flash Builder project.
• Checks Flash Builder project for sources file to exclude when building Flash projects
• Prompts to automatically update an existing asconfig.json file
• Will generate an asconfig.json file if one is not in the project
• If there are more than one Task when Exporting Release Build, it will prompt you for which one to build.
• Add Timestamp option, so you can specify a different RFC3161-compliant timestamp server to use
• Added options for stand alone Flash Player, Ruffle and an old web browser to use for launching. (Preferably Chrome <88)
• Added some more modern device options (made Google Sheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RlsuMwYp-ANTerziv12LxxH47GIsoeeBSdaEUdCDY5E/edit?gid=0#gid=0) to launching simulator
• Can store or clear stored passwords for certificates from menu
• Can store certificate password for just the session
• When exporting a release package, it will verify the password before trying to build the package
• Adds warning if using an old Flex/AIR SDK
• Checks the AIR descriptor to see if it matches what's being used to build
• Added option to force Halo theme for projects (still need work on Themes from FB)

Changed

• Using AS3MXML V 1.22.0
• Make Exporting Release rely more on values in Tasks, making them different tasks per device
• Import Flash Builder handles libraries better (still needs work)
• Changed images to adhere to Panic's sizing and folder layout
• Changed this changelog to a format is based on Keep a Changelog, and that this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[0.7.2] - 2024-10-06

Changed

• Got completions working from the completion XMLs.

Added

• Added completions for AIR Descriptor XMLs.

[0.7.1] - 2024-09-27

Changed

• Made each Task have it's own build/packaging setting.

[0.7.0] - 2024-07-06

Changed

• Replaced other XML parser stuff and updated code to use NS3X2J for parsing FlashBuilder's XML files.

[0.6.1] - 2024-02-24

Added

• Builds projects with ANEs.

Changed

• Restructured code.

[0.6.0] - 2024-02-22

Added

• Attempts to get packaging an AIR package.

Changed

• Replaced syntaxes with regex syntaxes from older version of Nova and modified. Seems to work better.
• Changed structure of tasks to call functions to handle building and running from Nova.

[0.5.1] - 2024-01-27

Changed

• Converted configs for Tasks to be part of workspace configs.

[0.5.0] - 2024-01-14

Added

• Started implementing Tasks to clean/build/run project.

[0.4.1] - 2023-09-16

Changed

• Minor changes to the AS3 syntax.
• Added some tests to see if hover and code actions are working.

[0.4.0] - 2023-05-21

Changed

• Setup configuration for the extension based on that of the VSCode one, even if they don't seem like they will work in Nova (like the SDK picker).
• Using v1.17.0 of Bowler Hat's AS3MXML language-server.

[0.3.0] - 2023-01-27

Changed

• No longer using a bash script to start the LSP.

[0.2.0] - 2023-01-12

Changed

• Using hard coded bash script to start LSP.
• Warning/Errors pop up now under issues view!
• Folding of AS3 code blocks and comments working, however, classes and function not properly parsed

[0.1.0] - 2022-12-27

First commit - not working.