Faster method to get the last related record?

[rivet]

I have two tables:
- todo
- response

I have a list view layout: todo_list

On the layout there is a single text area with the following merge tags:

<todo::dueDate> <todo::detail> <todo::lastResponse>

 

the field:  lastResponse, is a calc field in the todo table

If ( Count ( response::id ) > 0 ; 

   GetValue ( response::user    ; 1 ) & "| "&
   GetValue ( response::comment ; 1 ) 
 
"" )

 

The relationship to the response table, is sorted by ID descending. That way I get the most recent response to the top of the list for the calc above.

 

While the performance is okay, I am wondering if there is something I could do to make the list display faster/smoother since it is a bit choppy.

 

 

 

 

speedPlease.mp4

Edited November 18, 2015 by rivet

[Fitch]

Since the relationship is sorted, you could just display the two related fields directly, without using a calculation. You could then use the "Hide object when" feature with a calc of IsEmpty(response:id).

Note that hiding the object is only necessary here to hide the vertical pipe. You could try it without that and see if it helps performance. I would expect that using IsEmpty() should give you slightly better performance than Count().

You could also try using a non-sorted relationship, and getting the related fields using the Last function, keeping in mind that if one of the fields can be blank, you might get mis-aligned results. To get around that, you could calculate the concatenation in the response table, and then get the Last of the calculated field.

[rivet]

Thanks Fitch, that got me in the right direction.   In the end I just merged the fields from the related table directly onto the parent layout.  The merge takes the first record from my sorted relationship and I am just going to live with the empty pipes.

[webko]

Or you could apply a Hide to the field if it's only pipes...