Building Flash-based websites using Flex

Lesson 10 – Deploying Flex Application

Alex Gohinfo@alekkus.com

Agenda

● Runtime Shared Library (RSL)

● Export release

● SEO for Flash

● Module decomposition

● Everytime a Flex application is compiled, a bunch of Flex libraries is “embedded” into the application, hence increasing the SWF file size.

● Most of these “embedded” libraries are common among different Flex applications.

● Instead of always embedding it into an application, Runtime Shared Library (RSL) embed all the libraries into one, and when loaded into the Flash player, sits permanently there.

● With RSL, a Flex application no longer needs to embed Flex libraries as they are already in the user's Flash player, hence reducing the SWF file size

● To compile a Flex application to use RSL in Flex Builder:

● Right-click on the project > Properties > Flex Build Path > Library Path > select RSL in the Framework linkage combo box

Runtime Shared Library

● By default, a “debug” version of SWF file is created everytime a Flex application is compiled.

● A debug version of the SWF allows developers to access the debugging features available in Flex.

● When the application is ready to set live, a release version of the SWF should be created.

● Release version takes out all the debugging features, hence reducing the SWF file size.

● To export an application to a release version:

● In the menu bar in Flex Builder, select Project > Export Release Build > a bin-release folder will be created; an release version of the application will reside in this folder.

Export Release

● To decrease the initial load time, decompose the application into sub-parts (modules).

● When the main application loads up (first page shown), load the other modules.

● For each module, a separate SWF file is created.

● Total file size of the application (adding up file size of all modules) may increase but loading time is decreased.

● Ensure the module is optimized for the main application:

● Right-click on the project > Properties > Flex Modules > make sure each module SWF file is listed and optimized for the main application

Module Decomposition

● Include metadata (keyword and description) in the HTML wrapper:

● Include a simple HTML version within <noscript> tag in the HTML wrapper.

SEO for Flash

The End : )