WebDirect Connection Issues

[RyanESmith7]

Some of my users are having intermittent problems with my webdirect solution, and if it were 1 or 2, I would probably dismiss it as network error, but it's happening a little too frequently for my liking. 

The symptom is that (even the simplest) layouts will start flashing, refreshing, and then we get the wheel of eternity. I have witnessed this myself on my phone when it is on WiFi, this will start happening... then I'll switch off WiFi and use the cellular network and it will work fine. I've also noticed on my phone that it happens more frequently with Safari than it does Chrome, but I've had it happen with both. I've seen several references to this on the web, but nothing that is concrete enough for me to find a fix. For one of my users, this happens on her laptop with a wired connection, at home and at work, in Chrome and on MS Edge.

My server(s) are hosted by Datatrium and the web server is separate from the FM data server.

Where should I start to troubleshoot this?

As always, thanks in advance.

Ryan

[Wim Decorte]

Do you have dedicated servers with them or is this shared hosting? Shared hosting can be problematic depending on what hardware specs they use and what the other tenants on those servers are doing.

Either way; first order of business would be to have a look at the various FMS logs to see if it shows signs of pressure on any of the 4 traditional bottlenecks (processing power, disk i/o, memory, network i/o).

Secondly: scrutenize your solution for things that would make it suboptimal for WebDirect, especially around themes, calcs, triggers,..

[IdealData]

Hey Ryan

I just conducted my own tests at Datatrium with a Web optimised system I have developed. Couldn't fault Datatrium, other than they were too far away (ping time) from the UK for me to continue with a commercial project there - just not quite "snappy" enough.

I did not experience any of your symptoms and my server was shared with another 70+ files and 10-40 users. Like I day, I have optimised totally for WebD. You'd be amazed how crippling even the simplest calcs can be and there's a whole new learning curve about layout objects and themes and you can't learn it all be simply "reading the book".

Why not try hosting it from home? You couldn't possibly have the same network speed as Datatrium.

Edited September 22, 2016 by IdealData

[RyanESmith7]

Thanks for the posts. This was supposed to be a pretty simple solution, but it does have a LOT of users (more than 40), but they will not be all simultaneous, and no single user would use it for more than 10 minutes a day. So my development process went well, testing went well, but then when it went to production, the problems started to crop up.

I used built-in themes from FM. Not sure if they are WebDirect optimized, but I can look into that further. What really bothers me is that my very simple login screen is having this refresh problem! It essentially uses a single table with two global fields, and the user literally can't type those in to hit the login button without having the refresh wheel of death locking them up. No triggers, no calcs.

Hosting it at home would be prohibitively expensive from a licensing cost perspective. This project isn't a money maker.

 

I just jumped on to try it myself. On my phone (iPhone 6), in Safari, connected to WiFi... refresh wheel of death on the login screen. Datatrium server shows 3 connections to the database at the moment. 

I switched to Chrome, no issues at all. Logged in right away and was able to move around no problem.

[RyanESmith7]

UPDATE: I removed the background from my app and went with a plain vanilla BG and it seems to behave much better!

[RyanESmith7]

"The spinning wheel of death" as my users are starting to call it, is back. Any other ideas out there? It consistently happens with Safari. Chrome is a little better.

[Wim Decorte]

Safari 10?

[RyanESmith7]

Yes

[Wim Decorte]

Is it ok with Safari 9?

[RyanESmith7]

It seems to be. I only have one device to test with on Saf 9. Many of my customers have already updated to 10, already.