FAQ

What is the Toolkit for Dart?

The Toolkit for Dart is an extension to Flash Professional CC to publish artwork and animation to the Dart language, which is a class-based, object-oriented language and compiles to efficient JavaScript that is being developed as open source by Google. The extension creates a fully functional and cleanly organized Dart project, leveraging the StageXL for Dart library to reproduce Flash runtime features.

Toolkit for Dart supports many of the core animation and drawing capabilities of Flash Pro, including bitmaps, shapes, movie clips, graphic symbols, classic tweens and motion guides, simple buttons, text fields, drop-shadow and glow filters, additive blend mode, single-shape masks, visible and cacheAsBitmap display options, and embedded audio.

The extension operates as an export panel for Flash Professional CC, which generates Dart code that represents items on the stage, symbols, images, and sounds in the library. Interactivity can be written separately in Dart using the Dart Editor, with thirdparty Dart editors, or within a comment block on the Flash Pro timeline as frame actions.

Who should use the Toolkit for Dart?

This extension was created by Adobe specifically for designers and developers who are already familiar with Flash Professional. Adobe’s goal is to provide users with a variety of options to create engaging content for different runtimes, platforms and languages. This extension helps Flash Professional CC customers build Flash-like experiences using the Dart language.

What is the StageXL for Dart library?

The StageXL library is a complete and robust Flash-like engine for Canvas that is built on top of the Dart programming language. The Dart language is very similar to ActionScript 3, and the StageXL library provides an approachable Flash-like API to build games and other graphically rich content. The StageXL library is intended for Flash/ActionScript developers who want to migrate their projects as well as their skills to HTML5.

The Toolkit for Dart publishes content from Flash Professional CC that is compatible with the StageXL library.

Which versions of Flash Professional will the Toolkit for Dart work with?

The Toolkit for Dart extension is compatible with Flash Professional CC.

Why is Adobe contributing the Toolkit for Dart to open source?

Since Flash Professional is the leading tool for authoring interactive and animated 2D content, Adobe’s goal is to extend that content‘s reach to multiple formats. By contributing the Toolkit for Dart to open source, designers, developers and animators can publish assets created in Flash Professional CC to the Dart language. This will result in the Dart community participating in the evolution of the Toolkit for Dart, while StageXL libraries and Dart language evolve and mature.

Are there limitations to the types of Flash Pro content that can be published to Dart?

Yes. While many of the core graphic and animation capabilities in Flash Pro are supported (similar to the Toolkit for CreateJS), some limitations at the moment include support for motion tweens, animated masks, some filters and blend modes, scale 9 grid, custom base classes, and some TextField options. Read more about the technical details here.

Where can I learn more about Flash Professional CC?

Flash Professional CC has been rebuilt from the ground up to be faster, modular, extensible, reliable, more focused and more efficient than before. Learn about the new features and integration with the Creative Cloud here.