are there any open source tools to build flash widgets or do i need adobe flash cs3?
I’m trying to figure out how to build a flash widget that could be placed by others on their blogs, profile pages etc. Is there any open source solution or do I need to purchase Adobe flash cs3 professional ?
You can use FlashDevelop IDE.
Summary
FlashDevelop is a .NET open source script editor designed mostly for Actionscript 2 development. FlashDevelop is very quick to setup and easy to use as an external editor for the Flash IDE or as a complete open source development environment.
Main Features
* Project management with seamless SWFMILL and MTASC integration (using a portable standalone command line tool)
* Advanced Actionscript completion & exploration with automatic classpath detection (even without project)
* MTASC code checking with clickable error results
* Integrated SWF player and socket logger
Other Features
* Automatically cleans ASO files of modified classes (new)
* Files explorer (can create Flash 8 Trust Files for you)
* Automatic JavaDoc creation from methods
* Smart Actionscript help websearch on F1
* Jump to class/member declaration on F4
* Test movie in Flash 8 / MX 2004
* XML, HTML/PHP, JS, CSS code highlighting,
* Multibyte character encoding
* Program menu customization with XML files
* as2api GUI for documentation generation
* Snippets
* Lines bookmarks
* Code folding
* Zoom
Resources
* Support: samples & tutorials
* Support: usefull threads to get started
* Special shortcuts for Actionscript coders
* Region folding in ActionScript
* SWF building with @mtasc command
* Argument processing in FlashDevelop (in menus or snippets)
* FlashDevelop settings and configuration
* MainMenu, ToolBar and TabMenu editing
* ActionScript completion overview & configuration (updated)
* Contributing: getting started with FlashDevelop development
* Contributing: plugin development tutorial
* Team members and contributors
Links
Downloads related to the project:
http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewforum.php?f=11 (archives)
I am not sure if there are any free tools. but you may want to try Swish as a cheaper alternative.
http://www.swishzone.com/index.php
Try Wink
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/