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From: Vincent Moynihan <vince@vmoy.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle.server
Subject: Re: Oracle Forms WAN Performance
Date: Sat, 06 Jun 1998 11:17:59 +0100
Message-ID: <35791757.6902174B@vmoy.demon.co.uk>
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Keith Fulton wrote:

> I have a application which is implemented as around 180 fmx files in 16bit
> Forms 4.5.  Each fmx is coded to contain 1 window (with multiple canvases,
> etc.).  Window-to-window navigation is accomplished by calling and executing
> the new fmx in each case.  This works pretty well from a version control and
> maintenance standpoint, but I believe it is causing us problems with
> performance.  Each fmx is taking like 10 - 20 seconds to open even on the LAN,
> and the files are only 150-300K apiece, so it isn't the file server.  Over the
> WAN, the fmx's are still on a LAN file server, so it is not an issue there
> either.
>
> The issue *seems* to be all the initialization that Forms does when it opens a
> new fmx file--it issues something like 30-40 queries for information such as
> the date format, the currency, the language, etc.--items which are never used
> by any of the forms.
>
> Surely all Forms applications aren't this slow.  What are we missing here?  Is
> this initialization code in a package we can remove?  Is there some
> command-line parameter we missed to turn off all this stuff or what?
>
> Thanks for your help in advance,
> Keith Fulton

  I have recently finished a project which used F45 over a WAN. We had none of the
problems that you describe.  Remember that over a WAN both latency and bandwidth
are important.  Latency is a measure of the length of the path between the client
and the server.  A single packet takes about 6 ms to travel a kilometer over a
64Kbs ISDN WAN. So if your server is in SF and your clients are in the UK, then
you may experiance problems.

In addition, you should be careful to base all blocks in your forms on queries so
any denormalisation is carried out on the server.  I.e, your forms should not have
any POST-QUERY triggers to populate descriptors for foreign-key values.

Part of my duties on this project was to provide technical assurance of the
viablity of our design over a WAN.  I carry out this duty I used a tool called
Optimal Application Expert. This tool can measure the network characteristics of
an application using TCP/IP on for instance a LAN. It can then predict the
application performance if it were forced to work over a different type of
network, for instance a WAN.  I used this tool with great sucess and found its
predictions extremely accurate.  I would recommend that you use this tool in your
development process so that forms which perform badly over a WAN can be identified
whilst they are still on a LAN.

Best Wishes.

