Images slowing down my layout

[chr1shardcastle]

Hi,

 

I've created a layout that uses 2 images to act as buttons running scripts. The problem I have is that the bigger my database gets the slower it is to navigate and it's due to the images.

 

I've attached a screen shot of my layout. The images are on the far right of the body section. They're just very small jpgs.

 

I'm guessing filemaker is loading this image for every row (rather than once and repeating) so does anyone know of a technique I can reduce the load I'm putting on the file?

 

I've set up a few filters to reduce the list to the most recent/relevant records but it can still be a bit laggy.

 

Using Filemaker 11.

 

Thanks,
Chris

[jbante]

What makes you say the images are the problem? If you haven't already, try duplicating the layout, removing the images or using different images in the copy, and comparing.

 

The images are probably not the problem. If you're using the same images as buttons on every record (and the images are stored as objects in the layout, not as the contents of container fields in the records), FileMaker only loads each image once, even if you're looking at several records simultaneously. FileMaker does optimize for PNG, though, so you may get a marginal improvement by using that image format instead of JPEG.

 

How are you connected to the database? Are you running it locally on your machine? LAN? WAN? (Are you still on FileMaker version 9, as your profile indicates?) Exactly what operations are "laggy," and are any other operations just as fast as they need to be? Is it just this layout (and/or the buttons on it) that are slow, or your entire system?

 

Are those summary fields I see in your footer? Those might be contributing. The more records you have in a found set, the longer it will take to evaluate those. How are you doing your filtering? Can you show us those scripts? We might be able to suggest some tweaks (Freeze Window judiciously, Enter Find Mode before Go to Layout when finding records in a different layout, etc.).

[Lee Smith]

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This topic has been moved from "FileMaker Pro 11" to "Layouts".

 

The general topic areas are reserved for the discussion of the new tools, functions, and features that were introduced with that version of FileMaker, not for asking how-to questions.

 

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Lee

[chr1shardcastle]

Thanks for the response jbante.

 

I'm on Filemaker 11 (i'll update my profile!)

 

Images are objects (not in containers).

 

The reason I'm pointing it at the images is that when I resize my window so that the images are off the screen (i.e. outside of the bounds of my layout window) the layout speeds up dramatically. Scrolling is snappy as I'd expect. All other layouts in this database are fine. The file is on a local drive.

 

They are summary fields in the footer but everything is quick when I do the resize thing.

 

I've try converting the images to png but as you suggest I don't expect that to have a huge impact.

 

Cheers,

Chris

[chr1shardcastle]

I take that back about .png!

 

Seemed to sort it out completely. I left a jpeg in as a test and back to laggy. Without the jpegs it's happy which means I'm happy.

 

Thanks!

[Matthew F]

 

FileMaker does optimize for PNG, though, so you may get a marginal improvement by using that image format instead of JPEG

 

I didn't know this.  What about PDF formatted images?  Is that slower too?

[jbante]

I didn't know this.  What about PDF formatted images?  Is that slower too?

Why don't you try it and tell us how it went?