can I speed up a Value List with 10,000 entries ?

[Steven Cappiello]

Hi there,

I have a value list that has about 10,000 values. It takes forever to load the first time it's used, but after that, it is very quick.

Is there someway I can preload the values into memory in a way that is not disturbing/slow to the user ?

[corn]

You could trigger the value list in an opening script for the file (using the ValueListItems() function) which will load the values into the cache but I question the utility of such a long value list.

[Steven Cappiello]

Would I set a global field with that function?? if not how would I call it ? wouldn't running that function slow up the startup script?

I realize there are less cumbersome ways of dealing with a huge value list..

what other ways would you recommend?

-a filtered portal?

-a search and choose type method?

the value list is there in a solution that's been used for a few years and I'm working on other projects, so I thought if I could speed it up without making it noticeable to the user (even at startup) then that would be the simplest way to make it better

thanks!

[Søren Dyhr]

What is the valuelist used for, context and purpose ... isn't there a way beyond the alfabetic sorting, that could work as principle for the organization of the set you're plucking a value from - isn't there a thresshold somewhere distinguising nice to know from need to know. I'm fully with Corn when he writes:

but I question the utility of such a long value list

Databases should be vessels of meaning, not an occupier of availiable time to paraphrase Murphys Law.

--sd

[Steven Cappiello]

The list is a list of employees at the company that are being assigned as members of project groups in a portal on the project portal.

After the value list is in cache, using the value list is very quick to assign employees.

I was thinking that any other method would be slower. (but I'm very happy to learn that I'm wrong!) :-)

thanks again.

[Søren Dyhr]

Try to investigate this approach:

http://www.newcenturydata.com/downloads/filter.zip

I would never have guessed if they were to chosen completely arbitrarily, can't subsets of certain skills possessed perhaps be a criteria as well, but event if they are, could the list be made dynamic straining the otherwise busy away from the selection.

There's no point in assigning people to projects groups, just to learn that they havn't got the time for it. Although I'm fully aware that Kafkan mazes never should be regarded by intrinsic merits, but instead as a social elevator for underachievers or the nomenclatura.

Perhaps you should explain your mission statement better, to explain why structure as such is disregarded? Perhaps even why computation is chosen in the first place?

--sd

[Steven Cappiello]

It's a big institution... this database is used to help track who's doing what in various departments... it's not arbitrary.

For example, we'll get word that John Smith and Peter Tomkims have just joined the company and are working on the Mouse project.

The admin assistant will go to the Mouse project record, go to the portal of people that are "on" that project, and choose them from the list of employees, which is another table that is updated biweekly.

I realize that a filtered portal is much faster to load, but, I was wondering if there was some way to make the currently exisiting value list pre-load to cache so that it would just be fast without the first initial load.

I think I know what's possible now. (and what's not)

thanks, :

[Søren Dyhr]

The entire assignment process could be done this way to avoid assigning the same person twice:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/265338/

I would then combine it with the filtering I've suggested in my previous post, even have portals shown for each department in a tabbed layout, again can't I imagine all 10000 people sitting in one single office landscape! You see I'm beginning to get desperate here, there must be some structure to the data ... and no not something like all the ginger-haired.

We have publicly toyed with the availability of staff in this template, which dealt with shifts:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/178251/

Please note how intelligent Amber actually are, where I half a year later learned a great lesson:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/176396/post/204083/hl//fromsearch/1/

...couldn't I see it right away!! One of my latest attempt in the case looked like the attached file. I can clearly see where to attack the beast now.

--sd

FrankM1107.zip