You might like to be sure that you are using the latest version of Startup Manager
http://trac.puremvc.org/Utility_AS3_StartupManager

Forgive me if this point is redundant.  Good luck!
----Philip

Jason, thanks for sharing your cleanup() code.  I'll do something on this in the next release.
----Philip 

@jasonmac
Some points by way of reply...
1. In general, I take your point; I'm sure the SM could do better in this regard; I will review it for the next release; any specific suggestions are welcome

2. Where the client app creates and registers a proxy, then it seems reasonable that the app is responsible for cleaning it up; but the SM should ensure it is not retaining references that prevent the gc from doing its job

3. Currently, use of the StartupMonitorProxy reset() method, does go some way towards removing references that relate to the previous session; you could use this even if you are not going to re-use the SM; you could even instantiate a new StartupMonitorProxy as a way of losing previous references

4. On loading complete, it could be argued that SM state still needs to be retained, in case the client app want to interrogate it; so probably we need a new method call by which the app can tell the SM to clear its state.

----Philip

Yes, that's ok.
----Philip

First, note that after the load, in addition to the AssetProxy objects, there is an AssetGroupProxy object that is a single proxy for the group of assets.

As regards the personal proxy, I suppose you design it to have the behaviour you require and you populate it from the data that has been stored in the AssetProxy objects.

----Philip

With reference to the assetloader feature of StartupManager, the question of urls ending with .css arose on  the StartupForAssets thread.  In order to ensure the maximum possible feedback on this, I am asking the general question here, this being the appropriate place anyway.

The currently supported set of types in the AssetFactory urlToType method, based on url name endings, are
- image type: .jpg, .gif, .png
- text type: .txt, .xml
- swf type: .swf

Apart from including .css as a text type, what other types should I include?

Also, do people think it would be better to have the logic default to text type when the ending is unrecognised, as opposed to the current approach which is to throw an error?

----Philip

Still not sure what your question is...

By using the StartupManager assetLoader, there is an AssetProxy created for each url.  Each asset proxy has the url string as its name and has the IAsset object as its data.  Hence, facade.retrieveProxy(url) can be used to get a reference to the asset proxy.

Does this help?

Also, let me just repeat the following question, to make sure it is addressed to all interested developers.

The currently supported set of types in the AssetFactory urlToType method are
- image type: .jpg, .gif, .png
- text type: .txt, .xml
- swf type: .swf

Apart from .css, what other types should I include?

----Philip

Is your ApplicationMediator the same as the one in the demo?

The ApplicationMediator has a var 'groupOfUrls'; it expects to be assigned an array of urls.  Your code indicates that you provide an array containing the single url, that for the xml file.  And I think you say that it loads.

If I understand you correctly, your settings proxy has to process the xml file content and get from it the set of urls for the assets that you wish to load.  And you then have to process this set as another group of urls to be loaded.  So it's a two-step process.  Is this the requirement?

Also, the StartupManager Utility asset Loader feature does not currently recognise files of type .css.  I should add this as a text asset type, presumably.  In the meantime, one workaround is for you to extend the AssetFactory class and override the urlToType function.

The currently supported set of types in the AssetFactory urlToType method are
- image type: .jpg, .gif, .png
- text type: .txt, .xml
- swf type: .swf

Apart from .css, what other types should I include?
----Philip

Note that this demo requires the latest version of the StartupManager utility, that is, version 1.5, which has just been tagged as the current version.
----Philip

StartupManager (SM) utility does not have a StartupCommand and does not have a mediator.

Maybe you are referring to the StartupAsOrdered demo.  StartupAsOrdered needs to be version 1.5 to be compatible with SM version 1.3 or later.  The code fragments you quote look like they're from an old version of StartupAsOrdered.

Hope this helps.
----Philip

I just want to comment that I am working on a demo offering that loads assets and uses the StartupManager.  I'm calling it StartupForAssets.
----Philip

Great creative stuff!  Well done!

I note what you say about the custom message - seems like a reasonable idea.

It occurs to me to point out that you don't necessarily have to keep the resource list open across phases.  You are probably well aware that the StartupManager can reach the 'loading complete' state and you can subsequently start it again with the reset() operation.  I'm not saying that this has any advantage for you, but maybe a command on 'loading complete' could manage the phase advances and the registering of a new command for the waiting notification.  I'm assuming there are no mediators listening for these notifications; if there were, that would offer other possibilities regarding management of the phases.
----Philip

Since the mediator shouldn't talk directly to the proxy, it should use a notification.

This idea is stated regularly in the forums.  It is not true.  Mediators CAN talk to proxies; they don't have to but they can.  See following taken from the Best Practices document.

Since Mediators will also frequently interact with Proxies, it is common for a Mediator to retrieve and maintain a local reference to frequently accessed Proxies in its constructor. This reduces repetitive retrieveProxy calls to obtain the same reference.

----Philip

As regards maintaining client state, I don't use VOs.  In fact, I don't use VOs at all, but maybe they will arise in the context of client/server transfers sometime in the future.

Data from the server is built into an object graph on the client, e.g. per the example mentioned above, project references manager and project has a collection of milestone objects.  A set of proxies manages the object graph, i.e. the domain model. Mediators and Commands access the domain model via the proxies.  Roughly speaking, there is a proxy class for each record type in the object graph.

In the classic puremvc manner, the proxy contains a collection of records of the particular type.  For each record type, there is also a class, and this class includes appropriate behaviour, to support certain record-level operations best encapsulated there.  This model class includes the record properties - I know that these could be held in a separate VO class and referenced from the model class, but for now they're not.  Record properties can be bindable, to support usage in  view components.
----Philip

StartupManager MultiCore ...
For the startup manager utility, in the bin folder under trunk in the svn repository, there are 2 swcs, one for standard and one for multicore, the latter being named Utility_AS3_MultiCore_StartupManager_1_3.swc.
----Philip