Slow loading of forms

[KG360]

I have several forms with a lot of calculations. When the user loads the form, all formulas seem to kick in, and all fields retrieve data, even for sections that are not yet visible to the users. This makes the forms load slowly, to the point a user believes there is something wrong.

Is there an easy way to fix this?

/KG

[Aether]

Hello @KG360 - What I can suggest is for you to partition your form and separate them on a different submission to create a "Multi-step form" so that the loading the page won't be that heavy to load. Refer to the article below:

https://howto.caspio.com/tech-tips-and-articles/how-to-create-a-multi-page-form/

 

[Aether]

You may want to check this cause of slowness as well:

 

 

[KG360]

On 5/17/2023 at 12:34 AM, Aether said:

Hello @KG360 - What I can suggest is for you to partition your form and separate them on a different submission to create a "Multi-step form" so that the loading the page won't be that heavy to load. Refer to the article below:

https://howto.caspio.com/tech-tips-and-articles/how-to-create-a-multi-page-form/

 

Thank you! I am aware of the possibility, but I am scrambling to handle everything with 50 DataPages so I am reluctant to use multistep forms, but I might have to in the end. I also have a lot of drop downs and choices and a lot of text that need to load, so it is not entirely unexpected. However, I thought I could at least block calculation and search to occur before some sections are loaded...

Will ponder some more on what to do...

[KG360]

On 5/17/2023 at 12:58 AM, Aether said:

You may want to check this cause of slowness as well:

 

 

Thanks, and got that! There is nothing in this thread I have not considered or implemented. 

[Jodie]

Did you find an answer? I'm also so close to the 50 page limit for my plan that I've put way too much into a single page. But I did find that I had taken the wrong approach with my views. 

I created a very simple datapage table - with a results page and it took 3-4 minutes just to preview the page. If I passed a parameter and went straight to the results page, it was about 30 sec to 45 secs. The issue turned out to be the size of view. I'd been using the same view for multiple pages, and the views over time were getting bigger and bigger - so even pages that once were quick, became slower!

Now I need to go back and make more views for my pages and retest/change the pages as required to keep everything as lean as possible. I'm also creating a separate calc table for my user data to push as much calculation off the page load and into the tables as I can.

If you found other options that worked, it'd be great to hear.

[Kronos]

H, I just wanna share this article and informative video about the best practices for creating Caspio apps.

I hope this helps!

[KG360]

On 5/26/2023 at 8:00 AM, Jodie said:

Did you find an answer? I'm also so close to the 50 page limit for my plan that I've put way too much into a single page. But I did find that I had taken the wrong approach with my views. 

I created a very simple datapage table - with a results page and it took 3-4 minutes just to preview the page. If I passed a parameter and went straight to the results page, it was about 30 sec to 45 secs. The issue turned out to be the size of view. I'd been using the same view for multiple pages, and the views over time were getting bigger and bigger - so even pages that once were quick, became slower!

Now I need to go back and make more views for my pages and retest/change the pages as required to keep everything as lean as possible. I'm also creating a separate calc table for my user data to push as much calculation off the page load and into the tables as I can.

If you found other options that worked, it'd be great to hear.

Nice reasoning, thanks! I agree about views. I have been lazy and included all fields even if I use only 10%. The view are extremely large and take too long time to load. It is on my list to, once I am ready developing, to take ti e out and list all non-used fields in all views. I will ponder on the passing of parameters. I too, have move many calculations into the tables, but still need DataPage formulas in reports to recalculate things real time for the user to see.

[KG360]

On 5/26/2023 at 8:00 AM, Jodie said:

Did you find an answer? I'm also so close to the 50 page limit for my plan that I've put way too much into a single page. But I did find that I had taken the wrong approach with my views. 

I created a very simple datapage table - with a results page and it took 3-4 minutes just to preview the page. If I passed a parameter and went straight to the results page, it was about 30 sec to 45 secs. The issue turned out to be the size of view. I'd been using the same view for multiple pages, and the views over time were getting bigger and bigger - so even pages that once were quick, became slower!

Now I need to go back and make more views for my pages and retest/change the pages as required to keep everything as lean as possible. I'm also creating a separate calc table for my user data to push as much calculation off the page load and into the tables as I can.

If you found other options that worked, it'd be great to hear.

@Jodie I agree - large views seem to be a problem. This becomes evident when loading a view that contains fever fields in several tables. I too, have started to trim them down to only contain the fields I need. Formulas are a problem as for every data inserted into the form, the data page tried to calculate everything. I want the users to see what will be saved and make changes in real-time, so the formulas must be in the table. But I also have 'auto-fields' where the same calculations are made in the back end, so the user doesn't have to load every record for all fields to be up to date... Splitting into smaller forms will be a later step.

Thanks for all the input

[kpcollier]

Another thing I found that helps is using JavaScript for any calculations that you can... If you have some more simple calculations, you may want to try running those via a script and then using that produced value in the more complex calculations. The script runs much quicker than calculated fields in most cases.