Build the Feathers SDK from a Binary Distribution (Starling version)

The document explains how to build the Feathers SDK from a binary distribution. The build process automatically downloads the Adobe AIR SDK, playerglobal.swc, and some font embedding utilities from the Adobe Flex SDK that are not open source. When finished, the Feathers SDK will be ready to use with a supported IDE.

Most developers should use the Feathers SDK Manager instead. This tutorial is meant for advanced developers who want to modify the Feathers SDK compiler source code to contribute or to create a fork.

Requirements

A binary distribution of the Feathers SDK (available from Github)
Apache Ant 1.9.1 or newer
Java 8 update 101 or newer

Build Steps

Extract the Feathers SDK binary distribution into a directory.
In the Feathers SDK directory, run the following command:
```
ant -f installer.xml
```
When prompted to install each dependency, type y and press Enter.

That's it! The Feathers SDK may now be used with Flash Builder 4.7 and other supported IDEs.

Troubleshooting

Some versions of Java do not support the level of encryption used on the servers that provide some the Feathers dependencies. You may encounter the following error message:

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Received fatal alert: handshake_failure
    at sun.security.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:192)
    at sun.security.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:154)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.recvAlert(SSLSocketImpl.java:2023)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:1125)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1375)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1403)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1387)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(HttpsClient.java:559)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.java:185)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.connect(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:153)
    at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Get$GetThread.openConnection(Get.java:690)
    at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Get$GetThread.openConnection(Get.java:715)
    at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Get$GetThread.get(Get.java:606)
    at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Get$GetThread.run(Get.java:596)

To fix this issue, you must download and install the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files.