Load time of forms with large drop-down lists

[FlagTech]

I've been using UR for a few months now, and it's working pretty well, but seems so slow:

Searches are pretty quick, but when I click on one of the items in the Search Results pane, it takes ~7 seconds to display that item's record.

If I want to then edit that record, I click in it and hit the Enter key...and UR takes another 7 - 10 seconds to retrieve the record and display it in editable mode.

On the other hand, if I double-click an item in the Search Results pane, UR takes 7 - 10 seconds to position to that record in the tree. Then if I want to edit it, it still takes an additional 7 seconds to put it into edit mode.

Why so slow? (I often switch to a different program and do something else for a bit while UR is doing its thing to get to the desired record, or get into edit mode.)

I'd think that by clicking on a record in the Search Results pane that database record could be bookmarked, so that getting into edit mode would be nearly instantaneous.

Oh, I should mention that I've done Compact & Repair on all three of my UR databases, and it didn't seem to help. (The range in size from 17 to 22 MB each.)

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Also, let's say that I'm jumping back and forth between two records I'm editing, by clicking on them in the Tree pane. It takes 7 - 10 seconds each time I switch to either record. It's as if there's no caching of the most recent record hits...which would be fine if things were faster. But editing two records in this way is pretty painful.

[kinook]

That is definitely not normal. Has it always been this slow? Does this happen with any type of item or only certain types (web pages, text items, Word documents, PDF, images, etc.)? Is the behavior the same with a brand new database or the sample databases? Does it occur on multiple machines? Can you post or send the info from http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3038? Thanks.

[PJMiller]

I have only encountered a slow response when the database file is held on a USB stick, when the file was on a normal hard disk the response was very quick.

The write time for any flash drive (including USB sticks) is significantly slower than the read times.

[kinook]

I would expect a USB stick to be slower than a hard drive, but I don't encounter 7 seconds delays when testing on a USB stick -- maybe a little slower, but still a fraction of a second to load an item, navigate around, search, etc. I believe USB 3.0 is a lot faster than older versions, so you might want to make sure you have a 3.0 port and stick.

[FlagTech]

I emailed you some diagnostic info & sample data this morning.

[kinook]

Testing with the database you sent on a USB 2.0 stick and port, the items with a form take about 1.5 seconds to load vs. about 1.25 seconds on an internal hard drive (if the database you sent has 7-10 seconds delay for you, the difference would suggest a drive or port speed issue).

The reason it doesn't load instantly is that the form contains several attributes with values that are auto-completed from other records, and altogether the form drop-down lists contain several thousand values, which are read each time the form is loaded (since the list values could change when the database is modified).

Some options to reduce the load time:

1) Toggle View | Other Windows | Show Forms. This will cause the built-in Contact form to be used instead of a custom form (since these items ultimately derive from the Contact template), which does not have drop-down lists and avoids loading all of them each time. The Item Attributes pane (Ctrl+4) can also be used to edit values not on the form with a drop-down list.

2) If just searching/browsing the data and not editing, open the database read-only (so that drop-downs are not loaded for the form). To do this, either lock the USB stick before opening the database, or open from a Command Prompt and include the /readonly command-line flag:

start ultrarecall x:\file.urd /readonly

3) For any attributes with hundreds of completion list values, uncheck the Auto-complete values from other items option (Tools | Attributes -> Properties).

In our tests, when using any of the above methods, loading an item with a form was nearly instant, both from the USB stick and local hard drive.

[FlagTech]

I never suggested that the file is on a USB stick. It was on a fast hard drive. I just now tried moving it to an SSD drive, and accessing it is not faster, which suggests it is processor or cache bound. I'll try your suggested settings when I get time.

[kinook]

Or the SSD isn't faster than the other drive. Sorry, I didn't notice that the post mentioning a USB stick was not made by you. Is the load time the same for the original database and the sample you sent (perhaps if it was pared down it loads faster and might explain the difference in our results)?

[FlagTech]

> Is the load time the same for the original database and the sample you sent (perhaps if it was pared down it loads faster and might explain the difference in our results)?

Yes.

I just now toggled View | Other Windows | Show Forms, and yes, display is much faster.

But that's ridiculous! Why would I want to create a custom form--which has some of the critical data I need to see--if it has to be disabled to navigate among records? I saw no "UR has a custom form feature, but please avoid using it because it's too slow" warning. My primary use of UR (a customer database) is now severely crippled.

I'll try removing the Auto-complete setting when I get time, to see if that helps--I'm guessing it will.

But I can't use the database ReadOnly...it has to be editable.

By the way, do you think it's possible to change UR in some way--an internal optimization or reorganization--that would allow it to be faster when using custom forms? Worth considering.

[FlagTech]

I'm back to using my custom form but have turned off all Autocompletes for Items, and response time is now ~3 - 4 seconds ...much more "liveable" than the 7 - 10 seconds of before.

Thanks for the help.

[kinook]

This is the first time that the load speed of forms has been an issue. Caching of attribute lists has been implemented in the latest download (in our tests, this reduced the load time of your form items from about 1 1/2 seconds to 1/2 second).