Flash Builder + Mylyn = Ultimate Productivity!
I’m going to describe here how to install Mylyn into your Flash Builder development environment. Mylyn is the task and application lifecycle management (ALM) framework, that reduces information overload and makes multitasking easy. You can easily hook it up to your Bug, Issue and Project tracking software using it’s in built connectors, such as Jira, Bugzilla, Trac, Google Code etc.
Once connected to your issue tracker of choice, open the Tasks view or your Planning perspective and you’ll see a lovely list of everything logged in your issue tracker ( let’s say Bugzilla from now on! ). It now lets you do all the things you can do in Bugzilla, but right inside Flash Builder, which really simplifies your workflow.
One of my favourite aspects is the Svn client adapter. When activating a specific Task, any files you open relating to that task are marked in the tasks context. This means, when ever you open that task again, it will automatically open those files for you! How cool! And when you mark the task as resolved and goto commit the files back to svn, it automatically fills the svn comments for you with the details from the task. I’m telling you — this stuff is majic!
Ok, enough of the wittering, I’m sure you’d just like to get it installed and try for yourself?
A point to note — a couple of colleagues had serious issues try to get this working, but following this tute shouldn’t present you with any problems!
INSTALLATION
1. Java Development Tools & Ant
In Flash Builder, click the HELP menu, then INstall New Software. In the install window that pops up, in the field titled “Work with:” enter the Galileo update site details as follows — http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo — and hit enter. The Galileo respoitory is the standard Eclipse repository for a whole host of additional features and as such is pretty large. Therefore it may take a while before the tree list underneath gets populated with available features. When it does, expand Programming Languages, tick Eclipse Java Development Tools, and click next. Follow the install procedure instructions then restart Flash Builder.
2. Mylyn
Repeating the same procedure as above by selecting ‘Install New Software’ from Flash Builder’s Help menu. This time, click the dropdown next to the ‘Work with:’ field. You’ll notice it saved your Galileo repo in there. Select it, the tree below will now fill with the Galileo features. This time expand Collaboration. Check the features as in the following screenshot before completing the installation as described above.
3. Setup your Task Repository
Ok, so now we’ve done that, we need to add a new Task Repository from which to pull our Tasks from. This is basically just connecting Mylyn to Bugzilla. Open the Task Repository view — Other Views > Tasks > Task Repositories — in Flash Builder, right click in it, and select ‘Add New Repository.’ At this point you’ll be presented with a popup displaying the currently enabled Connectors — probably none available yet — with a button underneath to Install Additional Connectors. Hit it and choose your Connector from the list, when it finally fills.
On the next screen you’ll be asked for all your Repository authentication settings, such that Flash Builder can automatically connect and retrieve / update your task lists. Obviously these settings will depend on the Repository you are using and your own personal credentials. As such I won’t expand on this.
Once complete, open your ‘Task’ view in Flash Builder, and right hand click to add a new Query by Form or URL. In the case of Bugzilla, this will create a new query in your task list that is populated with the tasks/queries/bugs present in Bugzilla it’s self. I won’t go on about the features and UI here, I’ll let you explore that yourself. Go check it out — really helps your work-flow having everything in one place!
