Note: This post or article are governed by following disclaimer policy.

In this second part of "Learning Web Technologies with Sri", we will understand & learn about web servers, application servers.

Rather than talking about Web Server & Application[App] Server differences, it's better to know the definitions or the basics of each & then the knowledge of each would bring out the differences between them automatically!!.

Lot of resources are available on web on similar topics. I have gone through few of them & tried to put the things in little different manner so that people can understand it better, especially [School or college Students who have just started to understand or know the web]. In the final segment of this article I have references for the source which I have used or refered. Full Credit & gratitude goes to original author's of those sources. Without wasting anymore time, let's dive in & learn about web servers & applications servers. To start with lets talk about Web server.

Web Server

A web server is a computer program that delivers (serves) content, such as web pages, using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The term web server can also refer to the computer or virtual machine running the program. In large commercial deployments, a server computer running a web server can be rack-mounted in a server rack or cabinet with other servers to operate a web farm.

When the Web server receives an HTTP request, it responds with an HTTP response, such as sending back an HTML page. To process a request, a Web server may respond with a static HTML page or image, send a redirect, or delegate the dynamic response generation to some other program such as CGI scripts, JSPs (JavaServer Pages), servlets, ASPs (Active Server Pages), server-side JavaScripts, or some other server-side technology. Whatever their purpose, such server-side programs generate a response, most often in HTML, for viewing in a client [example: Web browser]. Next let's see the history behind the web server.

History behind Web server

In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee proposed to his employer CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) a new project, which had the goal of easing the exchange of information between scientists by using a hypertext system. As a result of the implementation of this project, in 1990 Berners-Lee wrote two programs:

• a browser called WorldWideWeb;
• the world's first web server, later known as CERN httpd, which ran on NeXTSTEP.

Between 1991 and 1994 the simplicity and effectiveness of early technologies used to surf and exchange data through the World Wide Web helped to port them to many different operating systems and spread their use among lots of different social groups of people, first in scientific organizations, then in universities and finally in industry.

In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee decided to constitute the World Wide Web Consortium to regulate the further development of the many technologies involved (HTTP, HTML, etc.) through a standardization process.

Features

1. Virtual hosting : to serve many web sites using one IP address.
2. Large file support : to be able to serve files whose size is greater than 2 GB on 32 bit OS.
3. Bandwidth throttling : to limit the speed of responses in order to not saturate the network and to be able to serve more clients.
4. Server-side scripting : to generate dynamic web pages, but still keeping web server and web site implementations separate from each other.
5. Path Translation : Web servers are able to map the path component of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into:
   • a local file system resource (for static requests)
   • an internal or external program name (for dynamic requests).

I know it might not be quiet appropriate at this point to talk about Virtual hosting and other stuff, so I will skip explanation of those things & move on path translation.

Whenever user types in url in the Web Client [web browser], such as http://www.riawanderer.com/path/file.html [Note: this is only true for static content requests such as html files, images etc..], the client's user agent will translate it into a connection to www.riawanderer.com with the following HTTP 1.1 request:

GET /path/file.html HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riawanderer.com

The web server on www.riawanderer.com will append the given path to the path of its root directory. What is this root directory on www.riawanderer.com? to know what is it , let's assume that the webserver is running on Unix machine, then webserver root is commonly /var/www directory. The result is the local file system resource: /var/www/path/file.html. The web server will then read the file, if it exists, and send a response to the client's web browser. The response will describe the content of the file and contain the file itself.

The above was just explained in layman terms. Actually the entire flow of request and response are done inside something called HTTP messages. When client [browser] makes a request for a url, as you already know the user agent translates the url into a HTTP request, which is nothing but a request message. A message format is of below

Request

Request = Request-Line ; *(( general-header ;| request-header ;| entity-header ) CRLF) ;CRLF[ message-body ]

The information on what each item/term means in above request can be found in www.w3.org request protocol section.

After receiving and interpreting a request message, a server responds with an HTTP response message. The below is message format for the response

Response

Response = Status-Line;*(( general-header;| response-header;|entity-header)CRLF);CRLF[ message-body ];

The information on what each item/term means in above response can be found in www.w3.org response protocol section.

Ok now we know how a request is sent & how the server responds back. Now next question that would arise is, Are there any limits on how much requests it can handle or respond to?

A Web server (program) has defined load limits, because it can handle only a limited number of concurrent client connections (usually between 2 and 80,000, by default between 500 and 1,000) per IP address (and TCP port) and it can serve only a certain maximum number of requests per second depending on:

• its own settings
• the HTTP request type
• content origin (static or dynamic)
• the fact that the served content is or is not cached
• the hardware and software limits of the OS where it is working.

When a Web server is near to or over its limits, it becomes unresponsive.

There are many other things/terms/factors to be considered, but I believe the point till what I have covered is sufficient enough to understand what is a web server ! . So next let's switch gears to understand what Application server is.

Application Server

An application server is a software framework dedicated to the efficient execution of procedures (programs, routines, scripts) for supporting the construction of applications. The term was originally used when discussing early "client-server" server systems and servers that ran SQL services and middleware servers to differentiate them from file servers.

Later, the term took on the meaning of web applications, but has since evolved into more comprehensive service layer. An application server acts as a set of components accessible to the software developer through an API defined by the platform itself. For web applications, these components are usually performed in the same machine where the web server is running, and their main job is to support the construction of dynamic pages. However, present-day application servers target much more than just web pages generation, they implement services like clustering, fail-over and load-balancing so developers can be focused just on implementing the business logic.

Advantages of Application Servers

So that's about application server. I hope by now you would have understood both the things & probably understood the difference between them. If not complete, if it has helped to understand both of the terminologies little bit, that satisfies me.

Thanks

Srinivas

References

• Wikipedia - App Server
• Wikipedia - Web Server
• w3.org - Protocols

Note: This post or article are governed by following disclaimer policy.

The first part of "Learning Web Technologies With Sri" will be on "Internet Basics". I chose this topic to give brief idea about internet & history about it, so that you know what is Internet,  how & why it makes so powerful tool for making this communication between each computer or devices unique. So let's get started. When you hear the word INTERNET, the first question that would arise in mind is What is Internet?

Internet is the largest computer network in the world, connecting millions of computers. A network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together.

So before going further with more details of internet, like different types of network etc.. let me give you brief history of internet. In 1969, the US Department of Defense started a project to allow researchers and military personnel to communicate with each other in an emergency. The project was called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network ) and it is the foundation of the INTERNET.

While mostly military personnel and scientists used it in early days, the advent of the WORLD WIDE WEB in the early 1990's changed all that. Today, the internet is not owned or operated by any one entity. This worldwide computer network allows us all to communicate and exchange information in new ways. Just for information, according to www.commerce.net, in April 1999, there were 92.2 million internet users over the age of 16 in the United States and Canada. By 2005, it was predicted 75% of the total US population will be online & later it was found that, it well went past the percentage predicted!!.

ok then let's talk about different computer networks. Common types of computer networks may be identified by their scale.

Personal Area Network (PAN)

A personal area network is a computer network used for communication among computer and different information technological devices close to one person. Some examples of devices that are used in a PAN are personal computers, printers, fax machines, telephones, PDAs, scanners, and even video game consoles. A PAN may include wired and wireless connections between devices. The reach of a PAN typically extends to 10 meters. Wired PAN Network is usually constructed with USB and firewire while wireless with Bluetooth and Infrared.

Local Area Network (LAN)

A local area network is a network that connects computers and devices in a limited geographical area such as home, school, computer laboratory, office building, or closely positioned group of buildings. Each computer or device on the network is a node. Current wired LANs are most likely to be based on Ethernet technology, although new standards like ITU-T G.hn also provide a way to create a wired LAN using existing home wires (coaxial cables, phone lines and power lines).

All interconnected devices must understand the network layer (layer 3), because they are handling multiple subnets (the different colors). Those inside the library, which have only 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet connections to the user device and a Gigabit Ethernet connection to the central router, could be called "layer 3 switches" because they only have Ethernet interfaces and must understand IP. It would be more correct to call them access routers, where the router at the top is a distribution router that connects to the Internet and academic network's connecting to customer access routers.

The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to WANs (Wide Area Networks), include their higher data transfer rates, smaller geographic range, and no need for leased telecommunication lines. Current Ethernet or other IEEE 802.3 LAN technologies operate at speeds up to 10 Gbit/s. This is the data transfer rate. IEEE has projects investigating the standardization of 40 and 100 Gbit/s.

Home Area Network (HAN)

A home area network is a residential LAN which is used for communication between digital devices typically deployed in the home, usually a small number of personal computers and accessories such as printers and mobile computing devices. An important function is the sharing of Internet access, often a broadband service through a CATV or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) provider is shared among all the personal computers present in home.

Campus Area Network (CAN)

A campus area network is a computer network made up of an interconnection of local area networks (LANs) within a limited geographical area. It can be considered one form of a metropolitan area network, specific to an academic setting.

In the case of a university campus-based campus area network, the network is likely to link a variety of campus buildings including; academic departments, the university library and student residence halls. A campus area network is larger than a local area network but smaller than a wide area network (WAN) (in some cases).

The main aim of a campus area network is to facilitate students accessing internet and university resources. This is a network that connects two or more LANs but that is limited to a specific and contiguous geographical area such as a college campus, industrial complex, office building, or a military base. A CAN may be considered a type of MAN (metropolitan area network), but is generally limited to a smaller area than a typical MAN. This term is most often used to discuss the implementation of networks for a contiguous area. This should not be confused with a Controller Area Network. A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

A metropolitan area network is a network that connects two or more local area networks or campus area networks together but does not extend beyond the boundaries of the immediate town/city. Routers, switches and hubs are connected to create a metropolitan area network.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

A wide area network is a computer network that covers a large geographic area such as a city, country, or spans even intercontinental distances, using a communications channel that combines many types of media such as telephone lines, cables, and air waves. A WAN often uses transmission facilities provided by common carriers, such as telephone companies. WAN technologies generally function at the lower three layers of the OSI reference model: the physical layer, the data link layer, and the network layer.

Global Area Network (GAN)

A global area network is a model for supporting mobile communications across an arbitrary number of wireless LANs, satellite coverage areas, etc. The key challenge in mobile communications is handing off the user communications from one local coverage area to the next. In IEEE Project 802, this involves a succession of terrestrial WIRELESS local area networks (WLAN).

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A virtual private network is a computer network in which some of the links between nodes are carried by open connections or virtual circuits in some larger network (e.g., the Internet) instead of by physical wires. The data link layer protocols of the virtual network are said to be tunneled through the larger network when this is the case. One common application is secure communications through the public Internet, but a VPN need not have explicit security features, such as authentication or content encryption. VPNs, for example, can be used to separate the traffic of different user communities over an underlying network with strong security features.

A VPN may have best-effort performance, or may have a defined service level agreement (SLA) between the VPN customer and the VPN service provider. Generally, a VPN has a topology more complex than point-to-point.

A VPN allows computer users to appear to be editing from an IP address location other than the one which connects the actual computer to the Internet.

Internetwork

An Internetwork is the connection of two or more distinct computer networks via a common routing technology. The result is called an internetwork (often shortened to internet). Two or more networks connect using devices that operate at the Network Layer (Layer 3) of the OSI Basic Reference Model, such as a router. Any interconnection among or between public, private, commercial, industrial, or governmental networks may also be defined as an internetwork.

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected governmental, academic, public, and private computer networks. It is based on the networking technologies of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is the successor of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) developed by DARPA of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Internet is also the communications backbone underlying the World Wide Web (WWW). The 'Internet' is most commonly spelled with a capital 'I' as a proper noun, for historical reasons and to distinguish it from other generic internetworks.

Participants in the Internet use a diverse array of methods of several hundred documented, and often standardized, protocols compatible with the Internet Protocol Suite and an addressing system (IP Addresses) administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and address registries. Service providers and large enterprises exchange information about the reachability of their address spaces through the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), forming a redundant worldwide mesh of transmission paths.

Intranets and Extranets

Intranets and extranets are parts or extensions of a computer network, usually a local area network.

An intranet is a set of networks, using the Internet Protocol and IP-based tools such as web browsers and file transfer applications, that is under the control of a single administrative entity. That administrative entity closes the intranet to all but specific, authorized users. Most commonly, an intranet is the internal network of an organization. A large intranet will typically have at least one web server to provide users with organizational information.

An extranet is a network that is limited in scope to a single organization or entity and also has limited connections to the networks of one or more other usually, but not necessarily, trusted organizations or entities (e.g., a company's customers may be given access to some part of its intranet creating in this way an extranet, while at the same time the customers may not be considered 'trusted' from a security standpoint). Technically, an extranet may also be categorized as a CAN, MAN, WAN, or other type of network, although, by definition, an extranet cannot consist of a single LAN; it must have at least one connection with an external network.

So the next question that would arise is What is a Server & Client?

All computers on the Internet (a wide area network, or WAN) can be lumped into two groups: servers and clients. In a network, clients and servers communicate with one another.

A server is the common source that provides shared services (for example, network security measures) with other machines and manages resources (for example, one printer many people use) in a network.

The term server is often used to describe the hardware (computer), but the term also refers to the software (application) running on the computer. Many servers are dedicated, meaning they only perform specific tasks.

For example,

• An email server is a computer that has software running on it allowing it to "serve" email-related services.
• A web server has software running on it that allows it to "serve" web-related services.

Independent computers connected to a server are called clients. Most likely, your home or office computer does not provide services to other computers. Therefore, it is a client. Clients run multiple client software applications that perform specific functions. For example,

• An email application such as Microsoft Outlook is client software.
• Your web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox or Chrome) is client software.

Next question that would arise at this point is how do Servers & Clients Communicate

1. Your computer (client hardware) is running a web browser such as Internet Explorer (client software).
2. When you want to surf the web, your browser connects to a remote server and requests a web page.
3. The remote server (server hardware) runs web server software (server software).
4. The web server sends the web page to your computer's web browser.
5. Your web browser displays the page.

Recap

So in this session of Part 1 of series "Learning Web Technologies With Sri - Internet Basics", we have covered

• Definition of Internet
• What is a Network
• Different Types of Networks
• What is a Server
• What is a Client
• How do Server & Client Communicate to each other.

In the next session, I will talk more about servers[not hardware] especially Web Server & Application Server. So stay tuned.

References

• Wikipedia
• GCFLearnFree.org

Thanks
Srinivas

I believe 20th century kids are lucky to have so many tools & technology in access to know, understand & feed their thirst for knowledge. Thanks to those scientists, firms who did give so much to this world to make it so knowledgeable.

In this series I will try to cover almost all technologies available in web world with brief introduction to them, features, basic of the technology or language & if possible even pick some advanced topics too. So stay tuned!!. Hope you will enjoy it.

Hi Folks, 

This Article/Post is in follow with my previous article on MyEclipse Flex Builder Integration - Installation Steps for Flex Builder Plugin in MyEclipse. Some of the folks, who went through the article, applauded & I was little esteemed by seeing my first article being published in MyEclipse news letter of Jan 2009. Thank you MyEclipse team for recognition given by you folks. Keep up the Good Work. Saying this let me tell you the motto behind writing this article. After seeing the article, many of my Indian Developer folks, went through steps & were able to setup the MyEclipse with Flex Builder Plugin. After that, some of the folks did try to use BlazeDS on top of Tomcat which comes with MyEclipse. Some of them have failed to integrate, either because of the steps followed or because of the confusion involved in the steps of integrating the Flex Builder & MyEclipse together. So to resolve all doubts, issues faced, I was forced to write this article, which basically explains step by step procedure of deploying BlazeDS on Tomcat server in MyEclipse & also configuring Flex Project to work along with it. I will try to make it as simple as possible. As in my previous article, here too I will try to upload a small video & also explain step by step in words along with the help of snapshots.  

Note : The article or post is governed by following disclaimer policy.

I have uploaded a small video, which address the steps involved in integrating the BlazeDS on Tomcat of MyEclipse. You can also watch the same below. Kindly bare with quality, it's not of best as I am using free tool.

Without further delay lets get started in understanding steps involved.

Prerequisites :

• Should have integrated MyEclipse With Flex Builder
• Download latest release of binary version of BlazeDS from Adobe Open source site - Point to be noted BINARY DISTRIBUTION TO BE DOWNLOADED NOT 'TURNKEY' VERSION - Turnkey version has Tomcat & Samples in built, so this is not the version we are looking for.
• After download, unzip the zip file & further unzip the "blazeDS.war" file to a temp folder. The below snapshot shows the same.

• As you can see it contains two folder "META-INF" & "WEB-INF". Keep this in one place, now let's return to MyEclipse.
• Open MyEclipse.
• Create new Web Project as shown below

• You will end up in "New Web Project Window". Fill in all credentials as shown in below image

• [Note : Below are the credentials I have used to fill in]
  • Project Name : "FlexBlazeDSSample"
  • Location : "use default location", you can have your choice of directory here
  • Source Folder : "src"
  • Web root folder : "WebRoot"
  • Context root url : "/FlexBlazeDSSample"
  • Remaining I have left as it is for defaults.
  • If you have JDK or Java EE 5.0 Version of Java installed, it might alert for the same, click Ok or yes button. It basically means to use JDK 1.4 or whatever default version selected to be used for this project [Make sure it should be JDK 1.4 or higher - as it is required for BlazeDS]
• Click on Finish to See Web Project being created

• Now minimize MyEclipse, and go to "FlexBlazeDSSample" Project root folder which you created just few steps before. In general scenario it would be present in "[WorkSpace Folder] > FlexBlazeDSSample" Folder or path.
• Also open the blazeDS.war extracted folder
• Copy both "META-INF" & "WEB-INF" directories from blazeDS extracted folder to "FlexBlazeDSSample" project's "WebRoot" Directory.
• Probably it will ask you for existences of few files & and ask you for confirming the operation.
• Click on "YES" button to overwrite the files. Don't panic this operation is not harmfull
• Now open or maximize the MyEclipse Editor
• Refresh "FlexBlazeDSSample" project
• You should be seeing the latest files along with "BlazeDS" config files under "WEB-INF" > "flex" folder.
• And checking the properties of project & moving to java build path > library should also show blazeDS libraries
• Below snapshots should be the outcome

• Close all properties window's or any windows opened. 
• Go to Windows, Open Server Window View, you would basically see "Tomcat" Server with stopped status
• Click on Start Button to Start the Server
• Now you need to deploy the web project which you created just now
• Right Click on Tomcat Server on Server Panel as shown below

• Click on Add Deployment
• You will end up in "New Deployment" as shown below

• Click on Finish to deploy the web project. This finishes your first step. Congratulation!!!, you have successfully created BlazeDS based Web Project in MyEclipse & deployed on to integrated Tomcat.
• Now, let's create Flex Project which will integrate with the web project which was created earlier.
• Either From File Menu or through right click options being Flex Development Perspective, Create new project

• Fill in the credentials as shown in above image
  • Project Name - "FlexblazeDSUI"
  • Project location - "use default location" - You can choose folder of your choice
  • Application Type - "Web Application"
  • Server Technology
    • Application Server Type - "J2EE"
    • check on "use remote object access service"
    • "LiveCycle Data Service" Radio button being selected
• Click on Next, you will end up in below screen

• fill in the form as shown in below picture or snapshot

• For those who cannot see the above image, follow below steps
  • Server Location - Uncheck "Use default location"
  • Root Folder - Browse through folder structure of your system to Web-Project's "WebRoot" directory [Above created web project]
  • Root Url - type in the full fledge url to access the web project on server for me it was "http://localhost:8080/FlexBlazeDSSample"
  • Context Root - "/FlexBlazeDSSample" - if you have different context root, specify that here
  • Leave compilation options as is.
  • Compiled Flex application location - output folder - would have full path of WebRoot followed by "FlexblazeDSUI-debug"
  • remove "FlexblazeDSUI-debug" and live it as shown in next snapshot

• Now Click on Validate Configuration
• This operation will result in below snapshot

• Click on Finish to complete Project creation and now if you expand the Folder Structure in Navigator or File Explorer should look like below

• Click on Run Button selecting Flex Project to see that it opens up url "http://localhost:8080/FlexBlazeDSSample//FlexblazeDSUI.html"
• The Screen should be empty as it has no source at all.
• Now let's Create a Java class called "HelloWorld" in "com.test" package in "FlexBlazeDSSample" Web Project
• Copy the below code into the java file


package com.test;
mport java.util.Date;
public class HelloWorld {
private String userSaid;

public String repeat(String said) {
this.userSaid = "Reply from server: " + said;
return this.userSaid;
}
public String sayHello() {
Date now = new Date();
return "Hello World " + now;
}
}


• Open Flex Mxml file and copy below code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute">

<mx:RemoteObject id="myservice" fault="faultHandler(event)" showBusyCursor="true" destination="Hello">

        <mx:method name="sayHello" result="resultHandler(event)" />

        <mx:method name="repeat" result="resultHandler(event)" />

    </mx:RemoteObject>

    <mx:Script>

        <![CDATA[

            import mx.managers.CursorManager;

            import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;

            import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;

            private function faultHandler(fault:FaultEvent):void

            {

                CursorManager.removeBusyCursor();

                result_text.text = "code:\n" + fault.fault.faultCode + "\n\nMessage:\n" + fault.fault.faultString + "\n\nDetail:\n" + fault.fault.faultDetail;

            }

            private function resultHandler(evt:ResultEvent):void

            {

                result_text.text = evt.message.body.toString(); // same as: evt.result.toString();

            }

        ]]>

    </mx:Script>

    <mx:Button x="250" y="157" label="sayHello" width="79" click="myservice.getOperation('sayHello').send();"/>

    <mx:Button x="250" y="187" label="Repeat" click="myservice.getOperation('repeat').send(myText.text); "/>

    <mx:TextArea x="10" y="36" width="319" height="113" id="result_text"/>

    <mx:Label x="10" y="10" text="Result:"/>

    <mx:TextInput x="82" y="187" id="myText" text="Sent to Server"/>

</mx:Application>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<service id="remoting-service" 

    class="flex.messaging.services.RemotingService">

    <adapters>

        <adapter-definition id="java-object" class="flex.messaging.services.remoting.adapters.JavaAdapter" default="true"/>

    </adapters>

    <default-channels>

        <channel ref="my-amf"/>

    </default-channels>

<destination id="Hello">

      <properties>

         <source>com.test.HelloWorld</source>

      </properties>

   </destination>

</service>

• Click on say hello button to see it's functionality
• Type in some message in text box & click on Repeat button to see the same on text area, which is returned from server
• There you go, you have successfully integrated BlazeDS + Flex & installed on MyEclipse integrated Tomcat Server too
• I hope I don't need to explain the example as the code is itself self explanatory

Hope this was helpful. Please feel free to comment. Open for reviews & comments.

Before doing this I advice you guys to backup all the important things along with the workspace and projects which you have in your system. I want you to do this, just in case you endup doing something wrong or screw your distribution, I don't want you guys to CURSE ME!!!. So please do backup and then follow the steps.

Note : The article or post is governed by following disclaimer policy. You will be doing this update with your own risk. Neither me or any of the corporates.. [Adobe, MyEclipse or anybody] is responsible for the end result.

Saying this, lets start with the installation. I assume you guys would have already installed MyEclipse on your system. If not please do it first. I am running MyEclipse on Mac, so windows folks kindly bare with me and follow the same steps, it should be fine. I will try to mention the paths or changes all the way accordingly with respect to windows & Mac. I believe the same process can be used for all Eclipse distribution. I confess, I have not tested on all of those, but for sure I will do the research and confirm in my next post.

Apart from explaining the steps below, I have also made a video which runs through these steps [Note: Video does not have JS Eclipse & Cold Fusion Plugin Update part]. Kindly bare with the video resolution as I was using a freeware version screen capturing tool, ended up in something like this. By next video blog, I will update or upload with something better than this. If you know few cool tools for the same please let me know. you can watch it below or at following location "Flex Builder Integration with MyEclipse 7.0".

• Double click on the installer. Installer starts up with the following screen

• You know what to do next. Yes go ahead click on Ok [After choosing language you want], so you get below screen

• So next screen is Introduction, you know what to do, just click on Next
• Next Screen is License Agreement. Click On I accept Radio Button, Click on Next
• Next Comes Choosing Installing Folder

Here Folks, I have left the default folder as it is in my case as I am using Mac it would be "/Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3 Plug-in" and for Windows Folks it would be "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3 Plug-in".

• Next comes very important one "Choosing Eclipse Folder to Extend From". For this as I don't have Eclipse or something on which I need to extend, What I have done is created a temporary folder "Eclipse" in "/Application" folder itself. This temporary Eclipse folder acts as a container for "links" folder which Flex Builder Installer places it.  It does lot more than that, but as there is no configuration folder, It would skip them. For windows folks, just create an "Eclipse" Folder in "C:" and select it.

• Once you select & Click on "Ok" or "Choose" button, A window pops up notifying that the folder does not have any eclipse version in it. Here click on "Proceed with Caution" button.

• Next would be selecting Additional Installations, select whatever you need & click on "next".
• Once you click "Next", the installer takes you to Installation Summary Section, showing all the details. Please make sure you have the things you had chosen before.

• Click on "Install" & relax till the installer goes ahead and install the Flex builder plugin, Flash Player for the browsers etc.. and ends up with final screen as below.

• You can see the above image shows a message notifying error during installation, ignore, just click on "Done".
• Now, open MyEclipse and in Menu navigate to Help > Software Updates > Add Software
• You are now in "Add or Remove Software Screen"

• Click on "Add Software", you will end up in "Add from Update Site" page, where you will find "Manage Sites" button, click on it

• Once you do that, you will end up in "Add Update Site" Window.

• Here Click on "Local" Button & browse through the path where you installed the Flex Builder Plugin. Under this installation, there would be a folder "com.adobe.flexbuilder.update.site", select it, click "ok" or "Choose".
• Once done you will be back in "Add Update Site" Window, with url field being filled in, now Fill in "Name" field with "Flex Builder" and click "ok".

• Now you will end-up in "Manage Update Site", with a list of what you added just now. ie., Flex 3 Builder : [with path information], when you click on arrow you would see list of features available. You cannot multiple select and click "Next", so you need to go back and forth to get final listing to be installed. In the list "Core Feature" & "Localized Core Feature" is what you are looking at. You can either select only these two or select all of them it's your wish.

• Once all selected, now click on "next" to see "License agreement" window. Select "I ...." checkbox and click "Next

• Next Screen Click on "Update"

• So MyEclipse Updates & Finally asks you for restart. Click on "YES" & myEclipse should restart for you
• Now go through few menu's like Help, you would observe Flex related menu's appearing there and you can click on "About Flex Builder" in Help to see the version details or Click on "About Myeclipse" to see Flex Builder Plugin shown.
• So you have done installing Flex Builder. Is this the end...... Naaaaa, lets create a small Test Flex project and check.
• Switch to "Flex Development Perspective".
• Create a new project "Test", Click "Finish"
• Once done, you would see that in Problems window "Error" message popups.
• If you move to "design mode", you would see error there too
• So let's fix these errors now. Before that I want you guys to delete the project.

• This error or problem occurred due to MyEclipse or the builder is unable to locate the SDK's folder. To fix this, lets go to "Preferences" of "myEclipse.
• Click on "Flex" > "Installed Flex SDKs". Ahh!! there you go, error appear here too and shows the reason too.
• Now Select First one of the list, click "Edit", would end in "Edit Flex SDK" window. Here browse through and point it to "[Flex Builder Plugin Installation]\sdks\[Version First.. it's 2.0.1], click "OK".
• Update Flex SDK Name field with "Flex 2.0.1" & click "Ok", now you see the first one stops showing error.

• Do the same thing for next one in the list, this time you will select "3.x.x" version under "sdks" folder & name it properly according to version & click "Ok". There you go even the second error vanishes.
• Folks, you can download as many SDKs version as you wish, install it under "SDKS" version of Flex Builder plugin or which ever location you want, all you need to do is come here in preferences and point the SDK by adding new version as we did now.

• Now click "Apply" & then "Ok".
• Now let's create a new project and test functionality of builder. there you go all functionalities works well!!!.. Hurray.... you are done.
• I would like to mention one point here that, these preferences what you set now sometimes is for your workspace, so make sure you follow same when you switch to new workspace or something.

Similarly, I understand Flex builder comes up with two more plugins, one for Cold-fusion & other JS Eclipse. For these two plugins, repeat the following steps individually

• open MyEclipse and in Menu navigate to Help > Software Updates > Add Software
• You are now in "Add or Remove Software Screen"

• Click on "Add Software", you will end up in "Add from Update Site" page, where you will find "Manage Sites" button, click on it

• Once you do that, you will end up in "Add Update Site" Window.

• Now Click on "Archive"/ "Local" and browse through the following paths for Cold Fusion & JS Eclipse plugins respectively

JS Eclipse [Click on "Local"]- /Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3 Plug-in/Installers/JSEclipse/

Cold Fusion [Click on "Archive"] - /Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3 Plug-in/Installers/ColdFusion Extensions for Flex Builder/ColdFusion_Extensions_for_Eclipse.zip

Windows Guys : Same thing holds good except the path, in my case path starts "/Applications" for you guys it would be "C:\Program Files\ Adobe\", and rest remains same.

• Update Field Name accordingly for both of them & click Next. This would take you back to "Manage Update Site", where in along with Flex Builder 3 List, you would now see "JSEclipse" & "Cold Fusion" too.
• Click on Arrow icons, Select the features, Click next to add them. Same way as before, you can't add them together by selecting together, so go back and forth and add them individually.
• "Coldfusion Extension for Eclipse" is the feature for Cold Fusion & "JSEclipse" is for JS Eclipse
• Once done you will end up seeing the above two features along with Flex Builder features under Locally Installed Software Section in "Add/Remove Software" Window.

• Now click on "next" to see "License agreement" window. Select "I ...." checkbox and click "Next

• Next Screen Click on "Update"

• So MyEclipse Updates & Finally asks you for restart. Click on "YES" & myEclipse should restart for you
• That's it the two plugins are installed for you & you can start using them without any problems.

Hope this was useful. as promised in the beginning, I will do the research on RAD,RSA & other Eclipse distribution too & post back on the same in my blog. So wait for updates...

Please leave in your comments & feedbacks. If you have any questions you can always contact me just by dropping a comment or feed back, I will definitely reply. You can also reach me at s.m.srinivas@gmail.com