18 Jan 2008
Query-string in SWF URL is bad idea because swf would be downloaded again by browser/client instead of being loaded from browser-cache, it happens if URL becomes non-unique due to the presence of changing query-string in different requests.
Browser does cache data for all URL, unless HTTP response headers (for URL or other resources) instruct not to do caching. If URL is different, browser considers it a new requests and downloads the data again instead of consuming from cache.
We can try to avoid or optimize such cases. In past, developers have used the other way by having random (non-unique) query-string in SWF or XML/asset URL to force reloading of asset/resource instead of using the ones from browser-cache. Though, they could have done things by setting right HTTP headers.
I have noticed some websites where swf URL has a query-string i.e. http://yoursite.com/yourapp.swf?var1=somedata, where value of var1 is not constant rather changes? Obvious reason, I want to pass dynamic data most of time hence using query-string instead of hard-coding it in swf itself.
I also noticed some sites which are using SWFObject and still passing data via query-string instead of flashvars using addVariable (..) instance method of SWFObject.
Another place, I again noticed something similar, AVM+ application loads AVM- (SWF 8 or less) application, let’s call it legacy-swf, and passes data via query-string, ok, that is understood there is no other way except writing a light-weight wrapper that uses LocalConnection or query-string approach?
- It might not be worth writing wrapper in case of small-size legacy-swf but depends, if you are serving to thousands of users, every single HTTP request cost something.
- If legacy-swf is large enough, it’s worth writing a wrapper that loads the legacy-swf. This way at least legacy-swf would be loaded from browser cache in next session instead of being downloaded again from your server.
This is very basic thing in web-application development, user-experience can be improved by doing these little things. I hope to write some more observations, no matter how stupid/trivial it sounds to me or other programmers. It’s good to post these things in context of flash/flex so beginners, who are not familiar with details of HTTP or other standards, can learn.
Technorati tags: http, cache, flash, swf, query-string
11 Jan 2008
I have been maintaining a list of flex/actionscript/air bloggers on flex_india group. I updated the list today and I would be updating it again next week.
It’s nice to see more developers from India are blogging and sharing their knowledge with everyone. There are ( and always have been) very smart and cool developers in India but generally they maintain a low-profile or too busy with work or shy.
Check out the following list, I have used the names of bloggers instead of blog-title because it was for me to do so.
You can bookmark this link.
Technorati tags: india, flex, flash, blog, blogger
04 Jan 2008
Another interesting project from Metal, he has ported ActionScript compiler (which is part of Tamarin project) to an ActionScript 3.0 library.
He is still working on it, however, he has posted a demo and current version of code. I am sure, this would be pretty useful. I remember of reading a thread on flexcoders about creating mock-objects in ActionScript 3.0, eval-project might prove useful there.
Technorati Tags: actionscript, compiler, tamarin
04 Jan 2008
AS3Crypto library now includes (partial) TLS 1.0 implementation, I was also thinking to implement the same for as3httpclient. Now this has been done, I might take a look at code and figure out the possibilities of integrating TLS in as3httpclient.
Thanks to Metal Hurlant for doing all useful/cool projects.
Technorati Tags: tls, actionscript, as3, as3httpclient, as3crypto
31 Dec 2007
Time flies, new year has just started. I wish everyone a very very Happy New Year (2008). I wish/hope, this year would bring us all that we want to achieve.
Last year (2007) has been full of events, I attended ApolloCamp, Flex Community meet in Korea, couple of Flex group meetings in different cities, initRIA, open-hackday and some more. I spent most of time in Pune working at Mixercast, where I got to work on and learn new things some of then were Syndication (RSS, MRSS and all), about widgets, Microformats and more startup culture. As usual, not much in personal life :-)
Last quarter of year (2007) has been slow because of new job, place etc. Anyway, I am excited about all new things, I am going to work on.
28 Dec 2007
I left Mixercast some months back and couldn’t exercise my stock-options due to various reasons (new place, new job etc), I forgot it totally. Now ninety days are over and I am (or have) screwed up. As far as I know or told, nothing can be done.
I knew, Mixercast would do well and my reason to leave company was something different. I feel, I had worked hard enough to reach a state of burnout.
Anyway, a lesson learnt, always exercise your options, if you believe in the product/startup/company and have worked hard.
27 Dec 2007
I was talking to my colleagues about Flow state and Procrastination. I thought of sharing some links, which are really cool.
I am reading the book (Flow) and it’s really worth reading. We all experience Flow state in our day to day life, we can experience it more often, if we learn how to get into the flow-state when we want to.
Technorati Tags: flow, procrastination, kevin, chiu, psychology
20 Dec 2007
With the release of Flash Player 9,0,115,0, there are lots of security changes are being introduced. Some are already there in the current release, more would be coming in later releases.
If your flash/flex applications require security settings for crossdomain data loading, cross domain scripting, socket connection or any other thing, you must read the Deneb Meketa’s article on Adobe Developer Center.
I am reading the same and believe me, there are lots of new stuff (terms and things). It’s good that Adobe is constantly trying to improve security features, though I feel, there can be more flexibility for Socket connections.
Technorati tags: flash, player, security
20 Dec 2007
As you know, I am working for Yahoo! for last couple of months. I would be working on Yahoo! Avatars.
I felt like posting about Yahoo! Avatar Towns, which my team has been working for sometime, I am yet to contribute to towns but hope to do very soon.
Take a look at it and please post your suggestions/feedback on suggestion-board, if any.
You can also send any feedback about towns or avatars in general, by commenting in this post or sending an email to [email protected].
Technorati Tags: yahoo, avatars, towns
20 Dec 2007
I started looking at the latest version of Adobe Media Player(AMP) available on Adobe Labs. I notice lots of improvements, be it user-interface or performance or content-coverage, that is, more feeds/videos are available to watch.
Lots of audio/video podcasts can be played in Adobe Flash runtime. I wrote some code to check if videos from Podtech, Diggnation etc, and it works without doing anything extra. All credit goes to new video/audio capabilities (H.264 and AAC) in Adobe Flash runtime (player/air).
The only thing I miss in AMP is to be able to add custom rss-feeds, for example, AMP doesn’t show Podtech and Diggnation videos for some reason, if I can add those feeds to AMP that would be great.
Over all, AMP is good piece of work.
Technorati Tags: adobe, mediaplayer, podcast, video, rss