Comments on: Flex Builder Tip: Use SWCs for image assets, not Embed metatags for pure Actionscript Projects

By: Craig Taylor

Craig Taylor — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:22:55 +0000

There is another benefit of loading your assets this way especially if you are traditionally from the Flash side of things. Flash performs quite a bit of work for us such as optimizing images, excluding unused artwork, and alike. However, Flex doesn’t perform any of these functions. If you place a 300k graphic Flex assumes you want the 300k graphic asset included as is. Be sure you have optimized your graphic assets before embedding them in a Flex Builder project.

By: Coding in Flex Builder, Compiling in Flex Builder: A Better Flash Workflow « benclinkinbeard.com

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:35:02 +0000

[...] A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a workflow I had devised that allowed me to utilize Flash library symbols but still write my code in Flex Builder. While Adobe apparently thinks this awkward hybrid approach qualifies as “integration”, I thankfully discovered a better process just a day or so after my posting. I discovered the main concept of this better workflow from Arpit Mathur’s blog. [...]

By: Using [Embed] with fonts in Flex / Flash Builder Actionscript projects includes SDK specific core Flex classes | Mark Ledford's Blog

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:49:42 +0000

[...] 9 / Actionscript Only projects reference it. Your library may also includes [embed] metatags even though the compiler adds some basic mx.core classes to do the embedding. This normally wouldn’t be an issue but you’ll find your boat will [...]

By: morgan

morgan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:37:54 +0000

I was using this process for a while and ran into a problem. If you’re using multiple swcs – say you’ve got a dev team, and both swcs have an asset names the same – say “close_button”, you’ll receive the Flex error “An internal build error has occurred” with no helpful information. There’s no easy way to solve this.

Also, if you have multiple source swcs, you can’t easily tell which one contains the symbol you’re looking for. You can ctrl-click the class, and it sometimes points you to the swc, but if you have an error, it won’t.

By: James

James — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:53:20 +0000

Thanks for this tip – I’ve abandoned image embedding and gone with SWCs, and it looks like it’s a much better solution altogether!

By: localToGlobal » Blog Archive » news review -> 13th week of 2009

localToGlobal » Blog Archive » news review -> 13th week of 2009 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:31:45 +0000

[...] > Flex Builder Tip: Use SWCs for image assets | code zen [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:44:33 +0000

I’ve been using SWC’s for my graphical assets for awhile now. I also sometimes use SWC’s for layout purposes… So instead doing tons of myClip.x = 10 etc… I just make a movieclip in Flash, layout a logical set of things the way I want them, then export it as part of the SWC. This technique can also save you from coding lots of text format stuff.

By: arpit

arpit — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:05:43 +0000

@Kelvin Luck @sysco
Monkey patching classes like that should be the last resort. Using assets in the swc you shouldn’t have to.

@Mar
Take a look at http://github.com/arpit/openpyro/blob/187d037ba27e2d3df9f835cf966f279a291bef14/src/org/openPyro/aurora/AuroraCheckBoxSkin.as, specifically the line

private var TickGraphic:Class = checkIconSymbol;

The checkIconSymbol is the symbol exported in the swc. Once you have reference to the graphic as a class, you can use it by creating new instances of that class.

By: shaun

shaun — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:21:54 +0000

I would imagine that using SWC files shortens compilation time as well – SWC files are already compiled after all.

Very excited to hear that OpenPyro is nearing release! Thanks for all your efforts on the project – I look forward to giving it a spin!

By: Kelvin Luck

Kelvin Luck — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:57:52 +0000

Somebody else blogged about this the other day but I can’t find the link to properly credit them… Their solution was to monkey patch flex. Basically create a class in the projects classpath for mx.core.BitmapAsset with the correct inheritance heirarchy. Then mxmlc will build this empty class into your swf… Repeat for the classes related to the other types you are embedding…

Ah ha! Found the link (thanks to google and because I thought to search for BitmapAsset!):

http://blog.brokenfunction.com/2009/03/16/how-to-remove-flex-libraries-completely-from-your-as3-project/