Web Client Performance Issue

[rossent]

Hi all,

I am experiencing a significant performance issue in the Servoy Web Client. The case is like this:

- The same code and UI is used in both Smart and Web Client;
- When tested with the Smart Client, the operation provides a full response in under 500ms (the code execution as seen in the Servoy Profiler view is between 250ms and 400ms and the rest of the time is taken to repaint the screen)
- When the same operation is tested with the Web Client, the whole operation takes 5+ seconds! Again, the code execution as seen in the Servoy Profiler view is under 500ms, however, the Servoy.exe process stays for about 3-4s at above 90% cpu utilization and the full page update in the browser happens after 5+ seconds.

Both operations are tested on the same machine running through the Servoy Developer 5.2.2 and the results are consistent with and without debugger running, with and without profiler running. SQL Queries do not play a role here - only 2-3 of them are executed with a total time of less than 10ms. What could be causing such an order of magnitude difference between the Smart and the Web client performance? The issue happens on multiple forms and not just a single one. The number of fields included on the forms does affect the overall result (as expected) but even with forms which have about 10 fields and 10 labels the web response is 3-4 seconds. By the looks of it, most of the time is spent after our code execution is completed - as if the Application Server is taking quite a bit of time to prepare and send the Ajax response to the browser. Profiling the web app running in the browser with Firebug reveals that only a single request is made to the server. The operations in question are very trivial - for example, setting the form in "edit" mode (which enables the edit fields and fills in values programmatically in a couple of them) or canceling changes (which rolls back unposted changes and sets the edit fields as read-only)

Has anyone else experienced similar issues and what might be causing them? I believe that the business logic code is not at fault since the Smart Client runs just fine. The UI on the forms is also not that complicated. We do use however form "inheritance" (a "base" form with no UI parts contains the common logic, it is extended by another non-UI form which contains specific business logic which in turn is extended by a third form which contains only UI and "inherits" the logic from the parents)

Any suggestions or recommendations on how we may approach resolving this issue are more than welcome.

[jcompagner]

do you also have this difference on an application server (so not using a developer at all?)

If you could also have the admin pages open at the time that you make that request to the developer that takes so long
and when it really is busy that 5 seconds dump the stack through the admin pages, maybe we can see then where it is or what it is doing.

[maria]

Problem solved?
Just curious.
We had great performance issues with smart client and this was one of the reasons to move one of our solutions to web.
Now considering moving another one to webclient, so I'm a little concerned to see someone having performance problems in webclient.

Cheers,
Maria

[grahamg]

Hi Maria

We have moved several customers from having Desktop-only (Rich Client) systems to Web Client compatible versions so that they get the benefits of greater flexibility, no need for Java, no worries about firewall settings - plus the ability to run on iPad etc. In each case the Web Client performance has been very similar to Rich Client - however when people are on poor connections then Web Client is usually better.

All our new development work is built for Web Client so that customers have the option which version to use. It's a great selling point particularly as many senior executives/directors seem to have iPads now and love having the opportunity to do *real* corporate work on them.

Regards

[maria]

Hi Maria

We have moved several customers from having Desktop-only (Rich Client) systems to Web Client compatible versions so that they get the benefits of greater flexibility, no need for Java, no worries about firewall settings - plus the ability to run on iPad etc. In each case the Web Client performance has been very similar to Rich Client - however when people are on poor connections then Web Client is usually better.

All our new development work is built for Web Client so that customers have the option which version to use. It's a great selling point particularly as many senior executives/directors seem to have iPads now and love having the opportunity to do *real* corporate work on them.

Regards

Yes, from the Java and firewalls point of view I agree, we moved one customer to WebClient and they're quite happy.

[bcusick]

Sorry - just have to chime in here... we develop for Web - and if they use Smart - it's a bonus (although there is the long load time, etc.).

NOTES: If you're going to offer Excel or Word exports (which we do) - the Smart Client is WAY more "elegant" than the web (hey, it's HTML and it SUX - deal with it!). Hopefully, Servoy will support HTML5 (as it progresses) and we'll get an even more-rich Web Client.

THANKS to the Servoy Team (and all the open-source folks!) who make this THE BEST and FASTEST platforms to develop in!