Specifications

9ADOBE FLEX 3
Building and Deploying Adobe Flex 3 Applications
What happens during a request to a SWF file
When a customer requests the SWF file, the web server or application server returns the SWF file to the client
computer. The SWF file then runs locally on the client.
In some cases, a request to a Flex SWF file can cause multiple requests to multiple SWF files. For example, if your
application uses Runtime Shared Libraries (RSLs), the web server or application server returns an RSL as a SWC
file to the client along with the application SWF file.
Server-side caching
Your web server or application server typically caches the SWF file on the first request, and then serves the cached
file on subsequent requests. You configure server-side caching by using the options available in your web server
or application server.
Client-side caching
The SWF file returned to the client is typically cached by the customer’s browser on first request. Depending on
the browser configuration, the SWF file typically remains in the cache until the browser closes. When the browser
reopens, the next request to the SWF file must reload it from the server.
Integrating Flex applications with your web application
To incorporate a Flex application into a website, you typically embed the SWF file in an HTML, JSP, Adobe®
ColdFusion®, or other type of web page. The page that embeds the SWF file is known as the wrapper.
A wrapper consists of an <object> tag and an <embed> tag that format the SWF file on the page, define data
object locations, and pass run-time variables to the SWF file. In addition, the wrapper can include support for
deep linking and Flash Player version detection and deployment.
When you compile an application with Flex Builder, it automatically creates a wrapper file for you in the bin
directory associated with the Flex Builder project. You can copy the contents of the wrapper file into your HTML
pages to reference the SWF file.
You can edit the wrapper to manipulate how Flex appears in the browser. You can also add JavaScript or other logic
in the page to communicate with Flex or generate customized pages.
When using the mxmlc command-line compiler, you must write the wrapper yourself. For more information, see
“Creating a Wrapper” on page 311.