Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 will soon be available (release is currently scheduled for early May) to the PHP development community. Version 4.5, though, is not just the latest version of Flash Builder, it is the beginning of a partnership between Zend and Adobe. Flash Builder 4.5 is under the Adobe umbrella, but will come with Zend Studio 8 bundled in and will have the full backing of Zend. You will now be able to create mobile applications using the Adobe Flash platform and PHP in one integrated application. Both Flash Builder and Zend Studio have been built on the Eclipse platform, so you will be able to build Flex and PHP side-by-side.

Flash Builder 4 looks like a new IDE, but since it’s built on Eclipse, you get all the benefits and plugins. So why not use them?