Where should flash files be stored in 3.1?

Question

In Rails 3.0.X, I would store my flash files in public/flash. Flash files such as: jwplayer, uploadify, etc.

With the introduction of the new directory structure in 3.1 (i.e. app/assets/), should flash files still be stored in public/flash or should I create a new directory called 'flash' in app/assets/ ?

Answer 1

You can use the Sprockets provide directive.

For example, this is how I am using Plupload:

# app/assets/javascripts/plupload.js
//= require plupload/plupload
//= require plupload/plupload.flash
//= require plupload/plupload.silverlight
//= provide plupload/dependencies

The corresponding vendor directory is organised like this:

vendor
├── assets
│   ├── javascripts
│   │   └── plupload
│   │       ├── dependencies
│   │       │   ├── plupload.flash.swf
│   │       │   └── plupload.silverlight.xap
│   │       ├── plupload.flash.js
│   │       ├── plupload.js
│   │       └── plupload.silverlight.js
│   └── stylesheets
└── plugins

I then use <%= javascript_include_tag 'plupload' %> when I want to use Plupload, and use the asset_path helper to populate the Plupload configuration:

<%= javascript_include_tag 'plupload' %>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
    var uploader = new plupload.Uploader({
        runtimes : 'flash,silverlight',
        multipart : true,
        multipart_params : {
            'authenticity_token' : '<%= form_authenticity_token %>'
        },
        flash_swf_url : 
            '<%= asset_path "plupload/dependencies/plupload.flash.swf" %>',
        silverlight_xap_url :
            '<%= asset_path "plupload/dependencies/plupload.silverlight.xap" %>',
        url : '<%= url_for [@item, :photos] %>',
        // ...
    });

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

if these are .swf files, I don't think they belong in app/assets. The asset folder allows for pre-"compiled" app asset files for CoffeeScript and SCSS (or similar js and css "compilers"). If you are compiling .as files into .swf files as part of your deploy or startup process, I could see it making sense to put them in the asset folder. However, this seems like a horrible idea.

=================UPDATE=====================

I was wrong. The asset folder is for serving Sprockets assets. As long as you can handle digested asset paths you should use Sprockets.