The Flex compiler has an option to generate a link report. This is a file that contains information on classes, dependencies and more for a Flex-project. Maybe the most common use for the link-report is to compile modules against it to optimise them for a certain application, but it can also be used to find classes and packages that might be included in your project without you knowing it, adding to the projects total file size.

The link-report file is a plain XML file, perfectly readable as it is. That said, there are tools to make even more use of the file. I have had experience with two such tools, both of them AIR applications that parses the link-report and presents the information in a more user-friendly way.

ItDepends has a very nice feature that lets you see exactly which classes that refers to a certain class, very handy for identifying unnecessary classes and reducing file size.

Link Reporter Visualizer is a tool similar to ItDepends, but also features a nice tree map, that you can zoom in on to get a very clear graphical view of package sizes:

I recommend any serious Flex developer to take a look at these tools and all their features, as there is much to be gained from using them!

Tags: flex, link-report, air, itdepends, link report