Question

I’ve created a modular application where a parent SWF loads a number of other SWFs on demand. For optimization, I’ve created a standard RSL.

I’ve compiled common code into a swc, and recompiled the application swfs to reference this swc, using the following in my build.xml ANT task (for each swf in my application):

<static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>false</static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>
<runtime-shared-library-path path-element="${lib.loc}/RSL.swc">
    <url rsl-url="RSL.swf"/>
</runtime-shared-library-path>

I’ve extracted RSL.swf from RSL.swc and put this on my webserver in the same directory as the application swfs and container html file.

Now when I load my application, I get the message:

VerifyError: Error #1014: Class mx.core:BitmapAsset could not be found.

I can see this class included in the classes in RSL.swc / RSL.swf.

I’ve used fiddler to observe what is happening and I can see my Application swf file is loaded, but no attempt is made to get the RSL.swf.

Having set up the Application.swf file to use RSLs, I would have expected it to attempt loading RSL.swf before initialising, however this doesn’t happen. Can anyone suggest why?

Answer 1

From http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=rsl_02.html:

“You cannot use RSLs in ActionScript-only projects if the base class is Sprite or MovieClip. RSLs require that the application’s base class, such as Application or SimpleApplication, understand RSL loading.”

As my base class was Sprite, I had this error.

In my case, it was better to compile all the required classes into my Application swf file, using the following steps:

1. use compc to create a SWC with the files I want to include in my Application swf file
2. use mxmlc with include-libraries pointing to the SWC file to include. Generate a linked file report (xml) using link-report
3. compile each additional child swf with load-externs pointing to the linked file report (xml) – this excludes the files linked to the Application.swf from being compiled into each of the child swfs

To achieve step 1:

<!-- We define the global classes which will be compiled into the parent Application   
     swf, but excluded from the tool swfs. As pure actionscript projects with base 
     class of Sprite can't usually use RSLs, we are forcing these classes to be loaded 
     into the parent application, and excluded from the child applications, allowing an 
     "Rsl-like" optimisation -->

<fileset id="rsl.inclusions" dir="${main.src.loc}">
    <include name="${main.src.loc}/path1/**/*.as"/>
    <include name="${main.src.loc}/path2/**/*.as"/>
    ...
</fileset> 

<pathconvert property="rsl.classes" pathsep=" " refid="rsl.inclusions">
<chainedmapper>
    <globmapper from="${main.src.loc}\*" to="*"/>
        <mapper type="package" from="*.as" to="*"/>
</chainedmapper> 
</pathconvert>

<!-- Compile SWC -->
<compc output="${lib.loc}/MySwc.swc" 
       include-classes="${rsl.classes}">
<static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>true</static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>   
<source-path path-element="${main.src.loc}"/>
</compc>

To achieve step 2:

<mxmlc file="${main.src.loc}/pathToApp/Application.as" 
   output="${bin.loc}/Application.swf" 
   debug="${debug}"
   use-network="true"
   link-report="WorkbenchLinkReport.xml"
   fork="true">
    <compiler.source-path path-element="${main.src.loc}" />
<static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>true</static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>
<include-libraries dir="${lib.loc}" append="true">
    <include name="MySwc.swc" />
</include-libraries>
</mxmlc> 

To achieve step 3:

<mxmlc file="${main.src.loc}/pathToChildSwf1/Child1.as"      
       output="${bin.loc}/Child1.swf" 
       debug="${debug}" 
       load-externs="WorkbenchLinkReport.xml" 
       fork="true">
<compiler.source-path path-element="${main.src.loc}" />
<static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>true</static-link-runtime-shared-libraries>
<compiler.headless-server>true</compiler.headless-server>           
</mxmlc>

Another handy tip: using fork=”true” prevents the Java VM running out of memory where many swfs are being compiled.

Hope this is helpful!