Embedding SWF causes it to be downloaded multiple times

Question

I'm trying to add a loading spinner to my application. I'm using a Flash SWF to accomplish this. The issue I'm having is it looks like if I use the component which contains the spinner in multiple places each one downloads a copy of the SWF.
I've created a static Assets class as follows: (I've attached the spinner.swf file to this post)
package
    [Bindable]
    public class Assets
        [Embed("spinner.swf")]
        public static var spinner:Class;
Here's an example where I use this class:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application
    xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
    verticalAlign="middle" horizontalAlign="center">
    <mx:Image source="{ Assets.spinner }"/>
    <mx:Image source="{ Assets.spinner }"/>
</mx:Application>
The output in the console is:
[SWF] Users:hillel:Code:Test.swf - 676,864 bytes after decompression
warning: unable to bind to property 'spinner' on class 'Assets' (class is not an IEventDispatcher)
[SWF] Users:hillel:Code:Test.swf - 4,517 bytes after decompression
[SWF] Users:hillel:Code:Test.swf - 4,517 bytes after decompression
As a side question, how do I clear up the warning. The Assets class is marked as Bindable which I believe should make it an IEventDispatcher.
Thanks for your help,
Hillel

Answer 1

The SWF is not downloaded twice.  It is embedded as a byte array into your SWF and the byteArray is loaded from memory twice (once per instance).
Alex Harui
Flex SDK Developer
Adobe Systems Inc.
Blog: http://blogs.adobe.com/aharui