So, with that said the process is fairly simple. The following is a hypothetical example of a class you have imported into your application:

package com.example.scope
{
    private var myVar:String = 'This is NOT the value we're trying to get';
 
    public class scopeExample
    {
        public function scopeExample()
        {
            import mx.core.Application; // make "Application" available in the current scope
            trace(Application.application.myVar); // outputs the value of myVar in the main application
        }
    }
}

You could also use:

trace(parentDocument.myVar); // if the component is a child of the main application

I ran across a post on Holly Schinsky’s blog the other day that had good descriptions of the various scope keywords, and a few tips. All of which is good knowledge to possess, so check it out.

You can use them statically(without instantiating an object) like so:

trace(Keyboard.TAB); // 9

Namely:

1. Use “Release” build — by default the SWF is built with Debug mode and has debug & profiler code in it that your application doesn’t need.
2. Move your panels into modules(see movie)
3. Use the RSLs instead of compiling the Flex framework into your SWF

Using these suggestions has removed over 500K from my app.

The video shows you how to do all of these in Flex Builder.

Here is how you can perform the same optimizations in FlashDevelop:

Number 1 is fairly easy: Just find the only drop-down menu in the main interface, and change it from “Debug” to “Release”.

With number 2 you follow the same instructions, but you can get to the menu to add an item by right-clicking on your project in the “Project” pane of the right column, or by going to “File”->”New”.

Number 3 is slightly more complicated. First you need to get to your project’s properties menu, which you can do one of several ways. Here is a screenshot of going through the “Project” menu:

Then, click on the “Compiler Options” tab, and select the “Advanced Compiler Options” by clicking on it and clicking the “…” button. Then add the line “-static-rsls=false” to it as shown(or append it on a new line if you have other options set already).

Now, you have to copy the “framework_3.2.*.swf” and “framework_3.2.*.swz” files to the “bin” directory in your project, and upload them to your site when you upload your app. These contain the Flex framework that will be cached by the Flash Player when you run your app. They are located in “flex_sdk_3\frameworks\rsls” in the Flex 3 SDK folder. Note that whatever version of the SDK you compiled your app with is the version you have to use the RSLs from. If you compile your app on on build, and then try to use the RSLs from another one(ie. you switched machines/reinstalled the sdk/use another ide that uses a different sdk version, etc.) you will get a message when your app loads about RSL 1 loading(but it never will). So, if you reinstall the SDK, or any of the things I mentioned recompile your app with the new version. *phew*

I hope these tips are helpful to you!

Anyway, I came upon a case where I needed to know the type a variable was so I could cast it properly(and for debugging), and I found that Flex doesn’t have a function to simply return a variable’s type. There is describeType(), but this returns an XML object with all of the information about the variable — not just the type. Plus you have to import the proper class to use it. So, I threw together this function quickly that will perform the import, and return/alert the type as needed:

private function getType(value:*, alert:Boolean = false):String
{
	import flash.utils.*;
	var description:XML = describeType(value);
	if(alert)
		Alert.show(description[0].@name);
	return description[0].@name;
}

I hope someone else can find it useful.