Want to load compressed JSON files from ActionScript 3? Use this Ruby script (or AIR application) to create the compressed files

zlib.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'zlib'
raise "what file?" if ARGV.empty?
puts Zlib::Deflate.deflate(IO.read(ARGV[0]))

ZlibCompressor.mxml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
    layout="vertical"
    title="ZlibCompressor"
    nativeDragDrop="onDrop(event)"
    nativeDragEnter="onDragIn(event)"
>
<mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[

	// From http://onrails.org/articles/2007/11/27/flash-utils-bytearray-compressing-4-1mb-to-20k 
    
    import flash.desktop.ClipboardFormats;    
    import flash.utils.CompressionAlgorithm;
	import flash.desktop.NativeDragManager;
	
    public function onDragIn(event:NativeDragEvent):void {
        var transferable:Clipboard = event.clipboard;
        if (transferable.hasFormat(ClipboardFormats.FILE_LIST_FORMAT)) {
                NativeDragManager.acceptDragDrop(this);
        }      
    }
    public function onDrop(event:NativeDragEvent):void {
		var fileList:Array = event.clipboard.getData(ClipboardFormats.FILE_LIST_FORMAT) as Array;
        if (fileList.length==0) return;

        var inFile:File = fileList[0];
        var fileStream:FileStream = new FileStream();
        fileStream.open(inFile, FileMode.READ);
        var ba:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
        fileStream.readBytes(ba, 0, fileStream.bytesAvailable);
        fileStream.close();

        var newFileName:String = inFile.nativePath+".zlib";
        ba.compress();

        var outFile:File = new File(newFileName);
        fileStream = new FileStream();
        fileStream.open(outFile, FileMode.WRITE);
        fileStream.writeBytes(ba, 0, ba.length);
        fileStream.close();        
    }
    ]]>
</mx:Script>    
</mx:WindowedApplication>

ZlibCompressor.xml

<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5"> 
    <id>edu.stanford.Zlib</id> 
    <version>0.1</version> 
    <filename>ZlibCompressor</filename> 
    <initialWindow> 
        <content>ZlibCompressor.swf</content> 
        <visible>true</visible> 
        <width>640</width> 
        <height>480</height> 
    </initialWindow> 
</application>