Reviewing Files takes AGES!

[rmorrow]

Thanks guys!
I'd really like to hear from Actinic as to any technical reason for this problem and whether it is being looked at in future releases of v8 (or v9, for that matter). Chris seemed to suggest earlier in this thread that it wasn't being considered....

[cdicken]

I'd really like to hear from Actinic as to any technical reason for this problem

The issue with page generation is that every time you upload or take a snapshot Actinic re-generates a page for every section in the store and then it does the checking to see whether it needs to upload it or not. This isn't any quicker in 8.5.2.

What has speeded up in 8.5.2 is that clicking around the content tree is a lot quicker for sites with a lot of custom variables.

We are currently looking at ways to speed up the 'reviewing' stage by only having Actinic generate the pages that have changed, but this will take a little time to figure out.

[rmorrow]

Chris
The real question is why does it take so much longer in V8 compared to V7? Our V7 Catalog site takes 2-3 minutes to update, but when upgraded to V8 Business (same number of pages) it takes 8 minutes. Would the Catalog to Business change have had an effect, as we've turned on some of the marketing features?

[RuralWeb]

we've turned on some of the marketing features

If you have these set to generate on every upload then V8 will slow dramatically! change them to one a week

[RuralWeb]

but when upgraded to V8 Business

Upgrading a V7 site rather than redesigning can leave alot of crap which may be affecting things as well - its always best to start from scratch in v8 (lots of posts about this)

[NormanRouxel]

Actinic started in the days of dial-up modems. Uploading pages was very slow then so a lot of work is done to minimise the number of pages that are required to be uploaded. In order to do this Actinic maintains a list of the MD5 checksums of everything it uploads and checks that against the checksums of the pages you're currently using. All this computation takes time, unfortunately, but nowhere near as long as sending unchanged pages.

[rmorrow]

Thanks for your replies - on a practical level, how are people dealing with the slow upload when they need to upload regulary to maintain an 'accurate' stock control? (for us it is every 10 mins or after each order using mole-end automation). Are there any other options?
Thanks!

[leehack]

Are there any other options?

Not with Actinic in the name IMO.

[rmorrow]

Actinic started in the days of dial-up modems. Uploading pages was very slow then so a lot of work is done to minimise the number of pages that are required to be uploaded. In order to do this Actinic maintains a list of the MD5 checksums of everything it uploads and checks that against the checksums of the pages you're currently using. All this computation takes time, unfortunately, but nowhere near as long as sending unchanged pages.

Norman - I understand the idea, but what has changed between V7 and V8 to quadruple the time needed for reviewing files? Is it simply, as Mal suggested, an unfortunate consequence of an upgrade resulting in a non-optimised site?

[RuralWeb]

What are your marketing tabs set at?

[rmorrow]

Turned all marketing lists off:
2 mins 12s for Checking HTML pages
4 mins 27s for Reviewing files
7 mins 34s for overall process (uploading approx 20 files)

Restarted Actinic but evalutaing Catalog rather than Business:
1 min 51s for Checking HTML pages
4 mins 43 s for Reviewing files
7 mins 04s for overall process (uploading <10 files)

Same site in V7.0.2.0.0.0.ECLA Catalog (using same site snapshot)
1 min for Checking Catalog, HTML pages & Brochure pages
13.6s for Reviewing files
1 min 20s for overall process (uploading <5 files)

Obviously the major difference is in Reviewing files. V8 reports a number of coding errors after checking the html and I've yet to sort these out - could this be having an effect? Interestingly, almost all the Reviewing files time is spent "hanging" i.e. the progress bar at the bottom is empty. Once this moves on to a few bars with "Searching for modified files..." just above then it takes only about 10s to complete.

[cdicken]

V8 reports a number of coding errors after checking the html and I've yet to sort these out - could this be having an effect?

It could easily cause the generation of pages to slow down - just generating the error would take up a certain amount of processing time.

[RuralWeb]

Try setting up a default actinic site and adding your products using a file import - I bet you see a difference.

[Andy Warner]

any news on speeding the behemoth up?

Hi all,

Just thought I would let you know my site in V6 does a complete upload in <1 min, from the click of the mouse to the final OK. in V8 it takes just over 6 mins. Thats with less items too, and irrespective of 'marketing' features.

Its all the PC side of things that run slow, the actual upload is the same both V6 and V8.

Any ideas if this will be addressed - sounds like poor coding to me. A bit of optimisation may be required?

comments from Actinic?

[pinbrook]

A bit of optimisation may be required?

Actinic have been working on speed issues and will be addressing them in 9.0.3.

In addition to this there are a couple of server modules that a host can install to help too.