Loading time varies wildly. What is your experience?

[Ratatosk]

I’m finished with my first app, and I’m noticing loading times varies very consistently. 8-10 seconds OR 24-30 seconds.

Is this normal behavior?

[Marc_Dillon]

Could that just be a sync upon initial loading of the app for the day/time-period, versus syncing during use?

Check your performance profile here:

[Ratatosk]

It’s in the performance profile I’ve checked it. I’ve started the app from scratch. It’s actually somewhat slower on PC than on my cellphone with 4G+. (And my PC has 500 mbit connection.)

It is also not the same sheet that takes a long time each time. Sometimes it’s the largest that takes 12 seconds (it usually takes 1,3 seconds) other times it’s a sheet with 8 cells that takes 8 seconds.

[MultiTech]

Generally, no - load times should not be double like that. You’ll have a range like you have, maybe anywhere from 8-15 seconds is a window that I would say.

I would expect it might be a transient thing, perhaps internet traffic or something. Serve load…

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Now if it continues to vary wildly like that, you might reach out to support@appsheet.com - might be a server optimization issue.

[Ratatosk]

Thank you for your kind reply and insights.

I’ve contacted support, and I’ll leave an update here when I get some answers.

[Bahbus]

For my current project, I average between 45-50 seconds flat. But I do have a VC calculating a dynamic SVG image with embedded Base64 font for 3000+ rows soooo… That ain’t getting improved any lower. Luckily everything else I do to the app doesn’t increase the time, since the app can do the rest of everything in parallel to the SVG calculations.

Eventually the sync time won’t matter at all because I’ll be avoiding full syncs completely - outside of initial load or accidental presses of the sync button, since I don’t think I can hide it.

[Ratatosk]

ut I do have a VC calculating a dynamic SVG image with embedded Base64 font for 3000+ rows soooo…

Wow!

It matters to me, because I will eventually have around 60 colleagues using it in the field. Staring at the loading time for 30 seconds is not a good UX, and it will surely backfire on me.

Thank you for the input, it really shows how different our usage needs are.

[MultiTech]

Bahbus:

VC calculating a dynamic SVG image with embedded Base64 font for 3000+ rows

Is there no way to help reduce this load? Are the images truely unique and need to be generated fresh each time, or could you save a version of each different state and simply use those instead?

[Bahbus]

They aren’t necessarily all unique. However, they could be. The point being I wanted them to be completely dynamic to the data.

[MultiTech]

Anoher thing you might consider checking is any spreadsheet formulas; this includes:

• any spreadsheet formula
  • especially any LOOKUP, QUERY, or other function that pulls data from one place to another
• conditional formatting of any kind, even alternating row color banding

Having any of these things on your g-sheet will cause a slowdown, it’s best to steer clear of any spreadsheet fanciness - at least in the sheets holding your data - and just think about the spreadsheet as just a data storage place. (Aka: like a database table, it just holds data.)

[Ratatosk]

I think I’ve followed every guideline there is. Spreadsheets are good, no formulas. A few Ifs in appsheet.

My problem is that randomly, it switches between taking 8-10 seconds to sync OR 24-30 seconds. Not 12 seconds, Not 15 seconds, Not 20 seconds.

The only thing I can think of is that my sync when it is 24-30 seconds is not being prioritized by appsheet server.

[MultiTech]

I’ve… never really seen anything like that from AppSheet

I know there’s something about that for business license users. But I wouldn’t think it would be that much of a difference.

I’m on AppSheet all the time, and I don’t have a business license, and never see sync times vary like that.