Reduce Flex 3 .swf Size by Using RSL
Filed under Flex
One of the disadvantages to Flex 3 is the load time caused by the large .swf file size. To counter this every flex developer has to find ways to reduce the lag. A lot of the ways are pretty straight forward such as reducing image sizes, image quality and using proper image formats (.png, .gif, .jpg). As I have been searching for more ways to make my .swf files even smaller I came across RSL (runtime-shared-libraries). RSL breaks your project .swf into 2 files and the first time you load the project it takes the same amount of time as normal. But the second time you load the project, one of the .swf files is cached causing the project to have a much faster load time (significantly reduces .swf file size). Here is a basic example of how to apply RSL to your project.
First you need to go Project -» Properties
Then you need to select Flex Build Path
Select Library path Tab at the top -» Framework linkage drop box -» Runtime shared library (RSL)
There are some more advanced techniques that I am trying to master at the moment. I would love to hear and learn about any others so feel free to hit me with some suggestions. Hope this helps someone out there ;)
Dec24