why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?

[mo...@comcast.net]

Newbie question here: I just uploaded my first flex app to a server and ran it. The app is 2 MB in size. My internet download speed is at least 2 MB/second. I expected the application to load and show me the first screen in about a second. 

However, when I click the application's link to run it, I get a progress bar that takes 30 seconds to complete, before the first page of my web app appears. The time it takes for this progress bar to complete cannot be related to my internet download speed, so what exactly is going on? Is this normal? Any way to speed this up? 

Re: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?

[Justin Mclean <ju...@classsoftware.com>]

Hi,

Using a tool like Fiddler or Charles reverse proxy can tell you a lot. Chrome, Safari and Firebug also have developer tools that let you look at the the how many connections you have, order then occur and and time taken for various parts of the request and response. In Chrome just view the developer tools and click on the network tab and then (shift) reload the page to get a good idea to what's happening.

Thanks,
Justin

Re: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?

[Thiago Maia <a0...@a00s.com>]

Hi, can you post the link? I guess your connection is 2Mbit and the file 
is 2Mbyte
> Not sure if it makes a difference here, but note that I have checked the "Merge into code" (under Flex Build Path, Framework Linkage), and the total Main.swf file is 2 MB. Also, I'm using the nightly build for Flex SDK (as of yesterday), Flash Builder 4.7, and Flash Player 11.9 (not the debug version).
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: modjklist@comcast.net
> To: "apache flex users" <us...@flex.apache.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 6:45:14 PM
> Subject: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?
>
> Newbie question here: I just uploaded my first flex app to a server and ran it. The app is 2 MB in size. My internet download speed is at least 2 MB/second. I expected the application to load and show me the first screen in about a second.
>
> However, when I click the application's link to run it, I get a progress bar that takes 30 seconds to complete, before the first page of my web app appears. The time it takes for this progress bar to complete cannot be related to my internet download speed, so what exactly is going on? Is this normal? Any way to speed this up?
>
>
>
>

Re: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?

[mo...@comcast.net]

Well, I can't explain it, but this morning when I re-installed Flash Builder 11.9, I got the 2 sec time I was expecting instead of the 30 sec I was seeing last night. 

Justin, thanks for the heads-up on using the browser's developer tools. I was able to use them for Firefox and Chrome just now and they're pretty useful. 

Alex, I didn't see any words displayed when the progress bar was shown, but I found this link: 

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/flex/using/WS2db454920e96a9e51e63e3d11c0bf69084-7e3c.html 

that explained the default preloader is spark (SparkDownloadProgressBar class), which doesn't include words, but I could use the mx version (DownloadProgressBar) to support text. Thanks for mentioning it! 


----- Original Message -----

From: "Alex Harui" <ah...@adobe.com> 
To: users@flex.apache.org 
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 9:26:29 PM 
Subject: Re: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long? 

The default progress bar has two phases: downloading and initializing. 
The progress bar should display one of those words. If 30 seconds is 
happening during the initializing phase, then it means that the SWF is 
already downloaded and all of the time is being consumed creating, 
initializing and laying out components. 

The profiler will show you the where the time is going. 

-Alex 

On 10/28/13 7:27 PM, "modjklist@comcast.net" <mo...@comcast.net> wrote: 

>Not sure if it makes a difference here, but note that I have checked the 
>"Merge into code" (under Flex Build Path, Framework Linkage), and the 
>total Main.swf file is 2 MB. Also, I'm using the nightly build for Flex 
>SDK (as of yesterday), Flash Builder 4.7, and Flash Player 11.9 (not the 
>debug version). 
> 
>----- Original Message ----- 
> 
>From: modjklist@comcast.net 
>To: "apache flex users" <us...@flex.apache.org> 
>Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 6:45:14 PM 
>Subject: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long? 
> 
>Newbie question here: I just uploaded my first flex app to a server and 
>ran it. The app is 2 MB in size. My internet download speed is at least 2 
>MB/second. I expected the application to load and show me the first 
>screen in about a second. 
> 
>However, when I click the application's link to run it, I get a progress 
>bar that takes 30 seconds to complete, before the first page of my web 
>app appears. The time it takes for this progress bar to complete cannot 
>be related to my internet download speed, so what exactly is going on? Is 
>this normal? Any way to speed this up? 
> 
> 
> 

Re: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?

[Alex Harui <ah...@adobe.com>]

The default progress bar has two phases: downloading and initializing.
The progress bar should display one of those words.  If 30 seconds is
happening during the initializing phase, then it means that the SWF is
already downloaded and all of the time is being consumed creating,
initializing and laying out components.

The profiler will show you the where the time is going.

-Alex

On 10/28/13 7:27 PM, "modjklist@comcast.net" <mo...@comcast.net> wrote:

>Not sure if it makes a difference here, but note that I have checked the
>"Merge into code" (under Flex Build Path, Framework Linkage), and the
>total Main.swf file is 2 MB. Also, I'm using the nightly build for Flex
>SDK (as of yesterday), Flash Builder 4.7, and Flash Player 11.9 (not the
>debug version). 
>
>----- Original Message -----
>
>From: modjklist@comcast.net
>To: "apache flex users" <us...@flex.apache.org>
>Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 6:45:14 PM
>Subject: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?
>
>Newbie question here: I just uploaded my first flex app to a server and
>ran it. The app is 2 MB in size. My internet download speed is at least 2
>MB/second. I expected the application to load and show me the first
>screen in about a second.
>
>However, when I click the application's link to run it, I get a progress
>bar that takes 30 seconds to complete, before the first page of my web
>app appears. The time it takes for this progress bar to complete cannot
>be related to my internet download speed, so what exactly is going on? Is
>this normal? Any way to speed this up?
>
>
>

Re: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long?

[mo...@comcast.net]

Not sure if it makes a difference here, but note that I have checked the "Merge into code" (under Flex Build Path, Framework Linkage), and the total Main.swf file is 2 MB. Also, I'm using the nightly build for Flex SDK (as of yesterday), Flash Builder 4.7, and Flash Player 11.9 (not the debug version). 

----- Original Message -----

From: modjklist@comcast.net 
To: "apache flex users" <us...@flex.apache.org> 
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 6:45:14 PM 
Subject: why first browser loading of Flex app takes so long? 

Newbie question here: I just uploaded my first flex app to a server and ran it. The app is 2 MB in size. My internet download speed is at least 2 MB/second. I expected the application to load and show me the first screen in about a second. 

However, when I click the application's link to run it, I get a progress bar that takes 30 seconds to complete, before the first page of my web app appears. The time it takes for this progress bar to complete cannot be related to my internet download speed, so what exactly is going on? Is this normal? Any way to speed this up?