Feature - Preloading PowerSearch and Report Desk for Faster Startup
Version: Elliott V8.6 and Above
Background
PowerSearch and Report Desk are powerful new features that bring additional capabilities to Elliott Business Software:- PowerSearch gives customers the ability to use Netcellent-provided, high-performance, graphical searches and to customize them to more closely match their needs.
- Report Desk allows customers to create their own reports by modifying Netcellent-provided, high-performance base reports, changing report content, filtering, and other options as desired.
To help improve the startup performance, we have developed a new feature which we call preloading.
How Preloading Works
When an Elliott task is launched from the Control Center, if it is configured for preloading, the new process immediately starts a separate, parallel thread to load and prepare the new components in the background, while at the same time running the new task. Depending on available resources, this preloading could take less than a second or more than a few seconds. When the user first requests a list of available searches or reports, if preloading was completed, the list will appear almost immediately. If preloading was started but not completed, the list will not appear until after preloading completes. If no preloading was configured, the task will load and prepare the software components and then display the list.
So preloading can be thought of as a way to remove the startup delay when requesting the list of available searches or reports.
In many cases, preloading of PowerSearch and/or Report Desk components will be unnoticed by the user, except that requesting the first list of searches or reports will be very responsive. However, there can be situations where preloading should be used more sparingly, notably when several users share the same computer:
- Loading and preparing the preload components is a short, but CPU-intensive, activity. If several users start tasks at almost the same time on a shared computer, there could be a visible delay when first using a search or a report in one or more of the tasks.
- If there is a significant shortage of available memory, the additional memory required by PowerSearch and/or Report Desk could cause visible startup delays.
Configuring Preloading Options
EL860S.CFG
Netcellent provides a configuration file named EL860S.Cfg. This is the system configuration file that is overlaid each time an Elliott update is done. By default, no task will do preloading unless specifically configured to preload. EL860S.Cfg entries specify our best guess about which programs will benefit most from preloading of PowerSearch and/or Report Desk components, and we specify them in one of three sections:
- [Preload-PowerSearch-ReportDesk] -- Entries in this section apply to both PowerSearch and Report Desk.
- [Preload-PowerSearch] -- Entries in this section apply to PowerSearch only.
- [Preload-ReportDesk] -- Entries in this section apply to Report Desk only.
The formats for entries in these sections follow this format:
<ProgramName>=Yes -- Only the tasks identified by <ProgramName> followed by "=Yes," will be subject to preloading.
EL860U.Cfg
The programs configured in EL860S.Cfg may not match your requirements exactly. We have provided a way for you to override the defaults. The same three sections are provided in EL860U.Cfg. The hierarchy is as follows:
- Entries in EL860U.Cfg override entries in EL860S.Cfg.
- [Preload-PowerSearch] and [Preload-ReportDesk] override [Preload-PowerSearch-ReportDesk]
- A specific <ProgramName> entry in [Preload-PowerSearch] or [Preload-ReportDesk] overrides all other entries.
In EL860U.Cfg, there are two additional formats for entries:
<ProgramName>=No -- This entry turns off preloading for a specific task/program that was turned on in a different way.
SuppressPreload=Yes -- This entry would turn off all preloading in the section, except for any <ProgramName>=Yes in the same or subordinate section.
Example 1: Turn off all preloading:
[Preload-PowerSearch-ReportDesk]
SuppressPreload=Yes
[Preload-PowerSearch]
...no entries
[Preload-ReportDesk]
...no entries
Example 2: Turn off all Report Desk preloading:
[Preload-PowerSearch-ReportDesk]
...no entries
[Preload-PowerSearch]
...no entries
[Preload-ReportDesk]
SuppressPreload=Yes
Example 3: Turn off all searches except for two specific tasks:
[Preload-PowerSearch-ReportDesk]
...no entries
[Preload-PowerSearch]
Suppress-Preload=Yes
CPSLSDSK=Yes
CP0100=Yes
[Preload-ReportDesk]
...no entries
User Overrides
Whenever a specific task is neither directed to preload, nor prohibited from preloading, according to the configuration entries above, the user has the option to request preloading for his or her use of the task. On the list of available searches and on the list of available reports, there is a properties button that can be pressed to examine or change the user's preload options for the current task:
Pressing that properties button will bring up a dialog where you can view and perhaps change the preload actions for the current task:
In this case, the ability to preload PowerSearch and Report Desk components has been prohibited in the configuration files, so the checkboxes are grayed out indicating that you cannot change the preload action.
Any checkbox that is not grayed out may be changed by the user. Checking the box means that the corresponding PowerSearch or Report Desk components will be preloaded each time the current task is selected from the Control Center in the future. You may also uncheck a checked box later if you decide that preloading of those components is not desired.
Programs: ELEMAIL, EL860ES, EL860RD
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