A5 V11 Running very slow

[martinwcole]

Re: A5 V11 Running very slow

be sure the adb boots to a menu based on a dummy table used for menus only. would be a table with only one record.

If it is booting to a menu based on a table with 1.5 million records, would take a bit to open.

[csda1]

Re: A5 V11 Running very slow

Hi Martin,

One should always use a dummy table for a menu, but opening a menu based with 1 record or 1 million records shouldn't take any difference in time as long as a filter or query (without LQO or with a large result) is not initially done. A find to any record, even at the end of the table "should" be immediate.

I'll bet you the that the slow down is due to Alpha Five V11 settings doing a version check for updates or getting V11 news. This may not be a feature that a trial version can eliminate, but should be doable in the registered version.

When you open Alpha Five a Recent Databases menu comes up (or click on it from the menu bar when no current database is open). There are 2 tabs, one for news, one for databases which have checkboxes at the bottom that affect the startup time.

I would say that the times to isolate are

• Starting Alpha from Windows to control in the control panel
• control panel open of database to beginning of autoexec script being invoked (if any) or initial form being opened.

[JerryBrightbill]

Re: A5 V11 Running very slow

We have done considerable comparative testing concerning V11 loading very slowly on a number of different machines and operating systems, including back to back tests on dual boot machines. The start times running Vista or Windows 7 for V11 is very similar to V10 in most instances on the same machine. Typically, XP in all versions loads V11 slightly slower than V10 on the same machine, on the order of 2 to 4 seconds.

However, we have identified a couple conflicts that caused V11 to start very slowly, primarily on XP. One software firewall and virus scanning program would cause the start up time to expand by a factor of 5. Most such programs can not be preventing from loading even using selective startup options in "msconfig". However, when these machines were started in safe mode which does not load the virus software, the V11 start speed was very close to the V10 load speed and typically 5 times faster than with the virus software and firewall loaded.

If you have an instance where V11 loads much more slowly than V10, try starting the computer in safe mode and compare the speeds. If the load speed is close to V10, try a selective start using "msconfig" to use a diagnostic startup which loads basic devices and services only. That will typically load the virus software and firewall, but very little else. If the V11 start speed is now much slower than in safe mode, the problem may be the virus and firewall program. If the V11 load speed is still ok, start adding services and programs on load until the conflict is found that causes a slow startup.

In testing, removing the virus program and firewall corrected the slow startup. After reinstalling the latest version of the software, the slow start problem did NOT return and V11 started normally.

If you find a specific program that is caused V11 to load slowly, please let us know as we are compiling a list of possible conflicts.

[bjacobson]

Re: A5 V11 Running very slow

Here are a couple of data points from my testing of a web application:

The default page - a grid of companies, 100 displayed per page, lots of columns, loads in the same time v10 and v11 (~6 secs).

However v11 is running 50-70% slower than v10 in opening the key part of the application - a complex page layout with 15 grids that are filtered for the current company. Load time varies depending upon the quantity of related data, but consistently runs 50-70% slower, e.g. if it took 10 seconds to fully load in v10 it is taking 16-17 secs in v11. I find the v10 performance to be acceptable given the large amount of work being done, but am delaying rolling out v11 because I don't think my client will accept 16-20 seconds (they open different instances of these pages repeatedly during the day). I can simplify the layout - calculated graphics and linked-grids displayed in line (as cells in a grid) account for much of the load time, but I'm reluctant to do this as these features add value to the current design.

Hopefully as Steve suggests v11 will get faster. My impression is that the performance difference is mainly due to graphics and show/hide formulas, but I can't say this for sure.

FYI: I have opened and re-saved each component that I used in these tests, to make them truly 'v11' components.

[Robert Adler]

Re: A5 V11 Running very slow

Hi:

I am experiencing a 70 to 90 second delay for the initial load of V11 on and XP PC. Just bringing up the Alpha software. If I start an application the same time delay exists. Application size is effecting the start up. To improve the process I built a single program (loads in 70 to 90 seconds) Each button on the menu executes another V11 application. They load within 2 to 5 seconds. When the exit the start the original application. This process works well.

[csda1]

Re: A5 V11 Running very slow

To aid everyone in quantitatively measuring Alpha Five Boot Times, I have created some XBasic code and placed it in the code Archive that will return and allow saving the results. It must be placed at the top of your database's Autoexec script.

See the Code Archive Entry here. It will work with Alpha Five version 8 and up

[Robert Adler]

Re: A5 V11 Running very slow

Hi:

I the application was run 5 time. the first and fourth had the longest times. This occurred right after connection to the remote site. It appears that setup time slows the process. attachments 2,3, and 5 were run after exiting and re-starting the application.

this application has one menu, ten scripts, and 1 dbf containin one record.

Once running everything is fine.