Testing the water on possible Flash Professional and Flash Builder integration

Question

Hey,
I just wanted to throw this out here instead of the bug area to see if I'm off my rocker or I'm on to something.
Basically one of my major pains is that any application design I do, I do it in Flash Pro and I code in FB. Switching back and forth between apps just to press CTRL + ENTER seems like a) a waste of time and b) a waste of system resources.
So what I'm proposing is having FB integrate with FLA files.
When you create your product you have the option to specify a target FLA (or multiple with a build order) so that when you test your project it will actually build your FLAs in order (in the situation that the final SWF requires others) and you're off to the races.
You could also have the currently associated FLA files have a checkbox next to them which could temporally disable them for a build.
If you still need to make design tweaks later on, it's a mater of opening Flash and doing them, but it would be so slick to be able to have FB render the FLA for you in the same app (no more random CTRL+ENTER in FB anymore!)
As far as where it could go. I think it would work the best if it was just a new tab that could be added to the perspective. Would allow drag+drop of FLA files to it, drag+drop ordering and also have the checkboxes to disable any FLAs from the build.
So there we go, does that sound like a decent workflow?
Cheers!

Answer 1

Hi guys,
Have you considered Testing the water on doing your design work in the new Flash Catalyst software http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcatalyst/ for your skins instead of Flash CS4.
You would be able to export directly in the new FXG format and integrate it directly in your FB4 coding.
There is a tremendous productivity potential gain there.
I am planning to abandon eventually completely Flash CS4 for both design  and coding and substitute it eventually by simultaneously working in FB4(coding) and Flash Catalyst(design) with input symbols directly linked to photoshop and illustrator related files.
For those of you who would like to wet their toes  and initiate  a quick dive, Lynda.com has already released, on june 11,  an 1h40 min course on this subject. Here are the details.
Length: 1 hour
Online Training Library® exclusive!
Flash Catalyst Beta Preview
with: Mordy Golding
Flash Catalyst is a new Adobe application that is currently in beta and available for downloading atlabs.adobe.com, that allows designers to quickly create interactive Flash content and rich internet applications without having to write a single line of code. In Flash Catalyst Beta Preview, Mordy Golding demonstrates a workflow that emphasizes the intuitive nature of the tool, and shows how to achieve results in a short time. Meant to bridge the gap between designers and developers, Flash Catalyst allows the designer to work with familiar applications, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, while automatically generating the necessary code in the background for the developer. Exercise files accompany the course.
Topics include:
Creating interactive content from Photoshop and Illustrator design compositions
Turning ordinary graphics into functional components like buttons and sliders
Using smooth transitions and animation techniques
Moving content between Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder
Declarative Graphics
Flex 4 will make good use of FXG, the new graphics interchange format used with the CS4 graphics applications. Flex 4 and Flash Player 10 can together render FXG graphical elements. These include:
graphics and text primitives
fills, strokes, gradients, and bitmaps
support for filters, masks, alphas, and blend modes.
FXG graphical elements can be used in Flex 4 in a number of ways. FXG elements can be used within an MXML file or component and can also be saved as an .fxg file format. The CS4 tools will typically export an FXG using the FXG 2008 namespace. Because these files are designed to be shared between graphical applications, you’ll find that they have a stricter format to what’s used in Flex; the Flex compiler will only use the FXG-specific tags. Adobe’s new application, Flash Catalyst, will make it easy to create FXG graphics compatible with Flex 4, which you can then use to complete your application’s user interface and appearance.
New effects have been added to Flex 4 that can also be applied to FXG graphical elements. These new effects will work on both new and old components alike. Standalone effects must now be declared within fx:Declarationstags instead of the body of the application. Once again, Flash Catalyst has additional tools to help make using these effects easier.
Ref:http://www.sitepoint.com/article/whats-new-flex-4/ by Andrew Muller