Search and Display

[progresswalk]

Hello,

I'm just finishing my website after months of work, only to discover that the main browse search method is taking too long (15secs). I'm sure I've optimised as far as I can with index's etc.

After clicking on search, the current page stays on screen for 12 seconds, before the new page display's in the last few seconds. The same occurs when I put display statements at the top of the SpeedScript of the result page.

Is there any way I can display a status bar or counter to the user, so they know it is doing something?

Many many many thanks!
Progresswalk.

 

[jkirchne]

A cheap and nasty way could be to use frames. Have a top frame that saids loading then reduces its size to nothing when the bottom frame containing your search results finally loads. If you want to actually have a true progress bar, I am not sure if you can force html out at various stages, as far as I know, you can not.

 

[Casper]

There must be some kind of index problem or you're asking for too many results at once. If the latter is the case then its more plausible to return limited results back. Say 50 and then make a acreen with buttons next previous last first.

Casper.

 

[Electron]

I use javascript to start a new (small) popup window when the user clicks the run button of the report. The window just has an animated gif, which tells the users that something is happening. I like to use a sleeping guy at a service desk with "take a number" (9999) and "now serving" (0001) -- heh heh.

When the results page loads, a 2nd javascript closes the popup. The users seem to like it, and they've stopped complaining about the slow report.

 

[progresswalk]

Thanks for your help jkirchne, Casper and Electron.

Casper might be right, because I return all the results to a temp table and only display the first ten of the temp table. So if you click next ten, it has to re-search and re-dump into the temp table before displaying the next ten. I might look into this further.

In the mean time however, I re-programmed the searches, by using more temp tables. For example in a search that involves three tables, instead of a three layered loop, I dump only the records I want from each table into their own temp table and search through the smaller temp tables at the end. The results where surprising. I have it down to 3-5 seconds now.

BTW: Do many of you use WebSpeed, SpeedScript any more? Has it been superseded by anything else? I have found it very useful for meeting tough design criteria and flexibility needs.

Regards,
Progresswalk.

 

[Kirmik]

In answer to your "has it been superseded by anything else?" We're now using ps:eScript which is an open source framework developed by PSC(UK) - (not freeframework.org).

It handles all your security, dynamic menus, session handling etc. The source code is free but you have to pay for consultation to use it. Personally I've never had much respect for Progress' previous attempts at moving forward with the non userFriendly AppBuilder and even worse... the "Dynamics" framework but this framework for webspeed applications is fantastic. I'd even go as far as to say that I am actually enjoying programming in Progress again.

Now for the bad news..... It's a brand new framework not marketed worldwide yet (or so I believe) so I'm not sure if it's available to companies outside the UK. Take it from me though... best thing Progress have ever come up with and it does make developing web applications a damn site quicker and easier to maintain.

 

[rolmedo]

ps:eScript

Sound's very good, but how can I down load th ps:eScript ? I use OpenEdge 10 Service Pack2
Can you help me ?

TKS

In answer to your "has it been superseded by anything else?" We're now using ps:eScript which is an open source framework developed by PSC(UK) - (not freeframework.org).

It handles all your security, dynamic menus, session handling etc. The source code is free but you have to pay for consultation to use it. Personally I've never had much respect for Progress' previous attempts at moving forward with the non userFriendly AppBuilder and even worse... the "Dynamics" framework but this framework for webspeed applications is fantastic. I'd even go as far as to say that I am actually enjoying programming in Progress again.

Now for the bad news..... It's a brand new framework not marketed worldwide yet (or so I believe) so I'm not sure if it's available to companies outside the UK. Take it from me though... best thing Progress have ever come up with and it does make developing web applications a damn site quicker and easier to maintain.

 

[Casper]

Hi Rolmedo,

You cannot download it somewhere, to get it you have to contact Progress and ask them about PS:eScript. You can get it for free, but you have to hire a consultant for 5 days.
If you plan on making a website which needs fast development and multilanguage capability out of the box then go for PS:eScript it's worth the investment.

Regards,

Casper

 

[Casper]

Here's a powerpoint :

http://www.progress.com/progress/ptw/2005/emea/docs/ptw_107.ppt

Casper.

 

[escript]

More ps:eScript Information...

Hi Guys,

It's great to hear someone saying good things about ps:eScript, but there again I am biased as I wrote it. If anyone wants to know more about it, then feel free to get in touch. ps:eScript is available outside of the UK, again get in touch for more details.

Regards,

Matt.

 

[Lee Curzon]

I knew that. PS Escript is on my '1001 Things To Do in the next 6 months' list. From the documentation supplied, it seems pretty cool.

Matt also wrote the very useful xref analyser utility available on the Peg. It's a very simple idea. but a very convenient tool for quickly finding those Index idiocies in your code.

Kudos Matt.

Lee