How many fields affect performance?

[tbcomputerguy]

Is there a number of fields that when placed on a layout that will degrade the performance when viewing that layout.

I have a layout with 240 fields on it. It draws from 4 tables. When the script I use switches to this layout, the hourglass or the spinner in win7 keeps spinning for 10 to 15 seconds and it happens when I scroll down from the top part of the report. After the report/layout has been populated, all appears fine.

Also when I switch to preview mode, it spends some time calculating.

I have attached a pdf of the report.

Untitled.pdf

[comment]

It's not so much the number of fields as the type - esp. unstored calculations and summary fields.

[tbcomputerguy]

I see. the report if you looked at it is almost entirely made up of summary fields. Do you have any suggestions on how I may speed this up?

Dave

[comment]

I don't know anything about the data behind the report. My guess is that a "traditional" Filemaker report - i.e. a vertical report using sub-summary parts - should be fast enough.

Another option is to compile the report by script, using Edoshin's Fast Summaries method. This may be faster or not - again, it's hard to say without knowing what's involved in getting those numbers.

Ultimately, in some situations there's no choice but to store selected summary values. However, there's always a danger of discrepancy between the stored values and "real" data - so this calls for very careful planning.