Performance Tuning FileMaker 10. December 4th 2009

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1 Performance Tuning FileMaker 10 December 4th 2009

2 Tim Neudecker Professional FMP Developer since 91 In House Developer for 10 years Founding Partner with Kyo Logic LLC 6 Proficiency Exam, 7-10 Certified Founder of NY and CT Dev Groups

3 What makes a solution Slow? Finds Calculations Slow Network Screen Draws

4 Let s Tune your FileMaker Installation Ram Cache Records, scripts, layouts, etc also cached in RAM Saves re-reading records/data from temporary file on disk RAM cache defaults to 8MB in Pro, but can be much larger Tip: Solutions that work with large data sets may benefit from increasing file cache RAM size Effect is limited because the OS also caches recently used files in RAM, so disk read may get data from RAM anyway See file cache settings in Pro preferences Memory panel

5 Cache Setting in Pro

6 Cache Setting in Server

7 Stored Calculations Stored calculation fields are fast to view and use Downloaded at the same time as rest of the record Calculated only when a dependent field modified Unstored calculation fields are slower Must be recalculated every time displayed or used Can be really slow if they summarize many records/values or if calculation formula is extremely complex or recursive

8 Faster Calculations Short Circuit Calc Engine stops evaluating when logic permits it Let()

9 Demo 9/11 Text mesg ShortCalc Gaynor-Minden

10 Wide vs Long Tables Records downloaded to Pro clients on demand For viewing in a window, printing, exporting, etc. For processing in a script For sorting or summary calculation All non-container fields of a record are downloaded together Even if only one field is on current layout or any tab panel Even if only one field of child record is in a portal

11 Wide vs Long Tables Tip: Put fields with large amount of text data that are only used occasionally in a separate table 1-to-1 related record with large text field should only be used in a few limited layouts (in Form view, not Table or List view) Avoids downloading large amounts of data that are rarely used, speeding up client and network performance

12 Articles Demo

13 Container Fields Container field downloaded on demand when That field is viewed in a window, printed, exported, etc. That field is referred to in a calculation or script Container field may contain multiple streams JPEG and GIF are FileMaker native formats Inserting any other graphic format will cause a JPEG to be created and stored as an additional stream in the field for cross-platform use File name, size, and data all stored as separate streams

14 Container Fields Tip: Pro 10 only downloads the streams it needs Older Pro versions downloaded all streams (slow!) Feature of client, works with any host version Just one or two streams downloaded to view field For image: size and either native format or JPEG For file enclosure: type list and file name (NOT the file data) All streams downloaded to export or modify field

15 Speaking of FMP 10 Multiple records may be fetched at once by client, to reduce number of download requests to host Form View: 25 records (was 5 before Pro 9) List or Table View: count of visible records Portal: count of visible portal rows Larger pre-fetch for Sort / Export / Summary 5000 records (was 50 before Pro 9)

16 Speaking of FMP 10 Uses multiple cores more efficiently Better Pre-Fetching of data Server Side Scripts Schedule consistency checks

17 Make sure client and server is up to date

18 Server Side Scripts with FMS 10 No more robots!

19 Very Fast 22 minutes 12 minutes 5 minutes 3 minutes FMP 9 client over network FMP 9 client running on server FMP 10 client on Server FMS 10 server script

20 Index Value index on a field is required for Relational Join (finding records in related tables) Unique / Existing data validation Value list (non-custom and non-ess) Auto-completion Insert from Index (but individual words requires word index) Find may use word or value index Only text field can have word index

21 Index

22 Index Index on a field can be disabled, but I don t recommend it If the field is in a place where a user can do a Find on it, someone will, so let FMP create the index automatically If index disabled or Find criteria prevents use of a field s index, all records must be scanned Scan takes longer the more records there are Using index is almost instantaneous compared to scan

23 Index Indexes can also make things slower when ever a record is created all indexes in the table must be updated As record count increase so does time to insert new records

24 Index Resetting all indexes Developers use fields a user may never see Recover command

25 Index Resetting with Recover command

26 Word Index Find on text field normally uses word index only Find on text does NOT use index with some criteria, usually making the find a lot slower

27 Value Index Find on non-text field uses value index only Find on non-text does NOT use index with some criteria, usually making the find a lot slower

28 Find Optimization Within each Find request, criteria on same table are optimized so fastest operation done first Index exact: companyid == Index range: ownerfirstname =Fred (same as Fred*) Record scan: company =*Ma*er Since criteria on same table are ANDed together, set of records is narrowed down at each step so expensive scan work is minimized if possible

29 Multi table finds Use the Constrain and Find together Looping Omits GTRR from Related table

30 Demo Affinion - MyTasks v2

31 Relationships Index Size Field data type can affect Join speed Each digit in Number field -> ½ byte in index entry Each character in Text field -> 2 bytes in index entry Larger index entries -> Larger index to read from disk Field size can matter with large record count Larger field size -> Larger index entries -> Larger index Measurable at 1 million records on fast hardware, with match fields of 14 character Text vs 7 digit number

32 Relationships Q: Do multiple predicates speed or slow Join? A: It depends on operators in predicates and your data, since some operators will cause fewer rows to join and thus be faster Equi-join (= or operator) is fastest Range (a < MyField AND MyField < b) next fastest Greater or lesser alone usually slower

33 References 2009 Under the Hood Presentation by Jon Thatcher Some FileMaker Knowledge Base articles: #2984: Tips for Designing Networked or Shared Databases #5268: Performance Optimization of FileMaker Databases

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