How to Build the Release

This tutorial walks through the steps required to build the OVA for Flowplayer plugin.

1. Pre-Requisite Reading

The following reading is recommended with this tutorial:

• OVA Configuration Guide
• How to Build the OVA For AS3 Library

2. Downloading the Source Code

To obtain the source code for the OVA for Flowplayer plugin either:

• Download the release package from the OVA Developer Site or
• Checkout the source code from the Subversion repository on the OVA Developer Site

2.1 Downloading the Release Package

To download the release from the OVA Developer Site:

• Go to http://developer.longtailvideo.com/ova
• Register on the site
• Download the release package from the "Download the Latest" page

2.2 Check Out the Source From Subversion

To checkout the code using Subversion, use the following command:

svn checkout http://anonymous@developer.longtailvideo.com/svn/ova/trunk/ova.flowplayer

3. Building the OVA Plugin SWF

The release can be built using Ant. The Ant build scripts are located in the build directory of the distribution package.

The OVA for Flowplayer SWF can be built using either one of two approaches:

1. Using the pre-built OVA SWF located in the distribution lib directory or
2. Using the local source tree of an installed OVA for AS3 package

In either case, to build OVA for Flowplayer use the following command from the OVA for Flowplayer build directory:

ant <command>

where command can be any one of the following instructions:

• help - lists all available build commands
• build - the default build that includes the standard OVA plugin related debug output - equivalent to the build-debug instruction
• build-debug - the standard OVA build which results in OVA plugin related debug output being available
• build-release - a reduced OVA build that excludes the plugin related debug output calls
• build-local - the default local build - equivalent to build-local-debug
• build-local-debug - the standard OVA build that includes the OVA plugin related debug output calls - built via a local version of the OVA for AS3 source tree
build-local-release - the reduced OVA "local" build that excludes the OVA plugin related debug output calls

3.1 Customising the Build Properties

Before OVA for Flowplayer (or any OVA product) can be built, a number of environmental variables need to be set in the build.properties file that is located in the distribution build directory.

For OVA for Flowplayer, the FLEX_DIR variable is the only mandatory entry that needs to be set. It must point to the base directory of your Flex SDK install so that the compilers etc. can be located by the OVA build scripts.

FLEX_DIR = /Applications/flex_sdk_3

If you intend to build against the OVA for AS3 source tree rather than the pre-build OVA for AS3 SWC, you will also need to set the location of the OVA for AS3 package in your workspace if that package is not co-located with the OVA for Flowplayer distribution.

OVA_AS3_BUILD_DIR = ../../ova.as3

3.2 Using the Pre-Built OVA SWC

By default, the OVA for Flowplayer distribution includes a pre-built version of the OVA for AS3 SWC. This SWC is the standard OVA for AS3 SWC that includes the OVA debug output and methods.

If you wish to use the build, build-debug or build-release Ant commands to build a version of the OVA for Flowplayer plugin against a "release" or "minimal" OVA for AS3 SWC, then the OVA for AS3 SWC must be pre-built and "deployed" as per the OVA for AS3 build instructions.

Note: You cannot build a "debug" version of the OVA for Flowplayer plugin with a "release" or "minimal" version of the OVA SWC (or source tree) because the OVA for AS3 debug functions will not be available for use by the plugin source code.

3.3 Using the Local OVA for AS3 Source Tree

It is possible to do a local "minimal" build of the OVA for Flowplayer plugin that configures a "minimal" version of the OVA for AS3 source tree.

To build a minimal OVA for Flowplayer plugin:

• Use ant release to build a "release" version of the plugin
• Modify the build.properties file in the OVA for Flowplayer build directory to identify the library components to be excluded.

By default, a "release" build of the plugin using the local OVA for AS3 source tree includes the buttons, callbacks and ad server connectors. To exclude all of these, the following variables should be set in the OVA for Flowplayer build.properties file:

INCLUDE_CONNECTORS = false
INCLUDE_CALLBACKS = false
INCLUDE_BUTTONS = false

4. Obtaining the OVA For AS3 Source Code

The OVA for Flowplayer plugin source distribution includes the OVA for AS3 code as a pre-compiled AS3 library (ova-[version].swc). When you compile the Flowplayer plugin code, the build files are setup to use the pre-compiled OVA library.

You can separately download and build the OVA for AS3 library. Refer to the OVA for AS3 build documentation for further information.