Ah, got it. The bulk of the workflow is happening in an "On Display" action, and both methods invoke it (the exact same workflow). Somewhat counter-intuitively (given the situation), the faster OpenWindow action is also running an "On Window Loaded" action (which doesn't do much) but is NOT being run by the URL method. So just to make sure I'm clear, OpenWindow is running a superset of the workflow that PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-URL is causing to be run.
While setup to run AL logging to check this (I'd like to mention here how much I miss the easy setup for AL logging in the old WUT), I decided to use the timing info in the log to capture some quantifiable stats. I didn't exhaustively try all permutations (because it would've been exhausting), but each of the following represents the average of 8 tests of each type: *Opening a comparatively simple form (148 mostly DO fields, 124 AL's, 38 AL guides):* OpenWindow method using IE 11: 1.33 seconds URL method (to current window) using IE 11: 1.67 seconds OpenWindow method using Netscape: 1.10 seconds URL method (to current window) using Netscape: 1.55 seconds *Opening a comparatively complex form (732 mostly DO fields, 946 AL's, 241 AL guides) [all using Netscape]:* OpenWindow method: 1.53 seconds URL method (to current window): 2.17 seconds Using browser's history "Forward": 0.05 seconds URL method (to new window): 2.03 seconds Clearly the form size is having an impact on all methods, which makes sense. Netscape is uniformly faster than IE, which is also expected. What's the most interesting here to me is just how fast the "forward" mechanism...greased lightning. This is of course the same as the "back" mechanism, it was just more convenient for me to test it using "forward". Unfortunately I still don't know just why the OpenWindow method is faster than URL. I really like the functionality and usability of the URL method over OpenWindow, and am debating if it's worth the extra cost (or, more precisely, will the users think so). Anyway, thanks for the suggestions guys. -charlie On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 8:20 PM, Joe D'Souza <jdso...@shyle.net> wrote: > ** > > I had also thought of the authentication bit but I do not think it is that > as the authentication is stored as a cookie, so once authenticated, until > that cookie expires, another window that is opened should technically not > request authentication again. > > > > When I said search, I didn’t mean the search that happens on the request > ID. That is already indexed and is optimal. I meant searches that may > happen that may be designed on open window action or window loaded action, > that may be happening when you do a the url thingy and does not when you > use the open window action. I agree its unlikely to be that, but that’s > what I meant to ask you to check. > > > > Joe > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: > arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *LJ LongWing > *Sent:* Sunday, April 13, 2014 10:16 PM > *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG > *Subject:* Re: OpenWindow vs. PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-URL > > > > ** > > Charlie, > > Is it possible the extra traffic is relating to authentication? I know > when you do a open window action, the window is opened 'in the same > session', but is it possible that when doing a URL call, it's having to > communicate with the web server to determine which session is yours, which > is taking a bit of time? > > > > On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 7:37 PM, Charlie Lotridge <lotri...@mcs-sf.com> > wrote: > > ** > > Thanks for the suggestion Joe. Unfortunately the solution is not going to > be that simple: I was actually using a request id in the search, so it's > not going to get more optimal than that. > > > > I actually did a side-by-side comparison earlier. I set up an AL that > would open an entry using OpenWindow, and another that opened the same > entry using a URL, both effectively doing the same exact search (using a > request id). The URL method took a full second more to load (about .6 for > OpenWindow vs. 1.6 seconds for the URL). Using the browser's network > monitor I can see that it's performing some additional network > transactions, though (again) I really don't how to interpret these results > yet. > > > > -charlie > > > > On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 1:57 PM, Joe D'Souza <jdso...@shyle.net> wrote: > > ** > > I won’t pretend to know the answer – but have you ruled out some piece of > search workflow that might be running when you use the application command, > which might not be running with an optimal search criteria, which might not > be triggered during the regular Open Window action? I wouldn’t have thought > there would be a difference in the performance when essentially you are > doing the same thing. > > > > Joe > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto: > arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Charlie Lotridge > *Sent:* Sunday, April 13, 2014 1:51 PM > *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG > *Subject:* OpenWindow vs. PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-URL > > > > ** > > Hi, > > > > Recently I was experimenting using PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-URL instead of an > OpenWindow action to open a Modify window on a specific entry (using the > ?eid=<request id> parameter). It's easy enough to use and I certainly got > it working, but the performance as compared to OpenWindow was abysmal. > > > > My guess is that this has something to do with browser caching...maybe > this method can't use the cache or something. But I'm not sure since I > don't really know anything about how browser caching works. I opened up > the Network Monitoring console on Netscape and do see some significant > differences in the request/response transactions, but I don't quite know > how to interpret it. > > > > Does anyone have any thoughts or experience as to why I'm seeing this > performance difference or how to mitigate it if at all possible? I've > tried it on each of IE, Chrome, & Netscape with similar results. > > > > FYI here are my reasons for potentially wanting to use > PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-URL: when (in the natural course of navigating through > my application) the user wishes to modify some entry, I have some > generalized workflow that causes the app to open a Modify window. If the > window is opened using OpenWindow, though, and the user subsequently > attempts to refresh the browser page, it's converted to a Query (Search) > window and the context is lost. > > > > Similarly, I was hoping to preserve browser history functionality for the > user. If a user navigates from one entry to another (on the same for or a > different one), then the browser's Back and Forward functions should work > correctly and revisit the appropriate previously visited entries in modify > mode, but with OpenWindow they don't. > > > > Using PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-URL accomplishes both of these goals NICELY and > I'd switch my generalized workflow to use it except for the performance > issue. > > > > Any thoughts? > > > > Thanks, > > Charlie > > _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ > > > > _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ > > > > _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ > _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ > _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
