Report Explorer loads too long...

rbuser

Hi,
We have a client side and a remote server side - database with reports.
Because of the fact that server is situated in the distance, whenever the
Report Explorer starts loading it takes up to 1 minute to load.
If you close Report Explorer without doing anything and open it again - it
will load in an instant. But once you print a report with it (one is enough)
and close the Report Explorer, it once again takes about a minute to open
up.
So the question is:
How can I load it into the memory and use it from there so that I would only
have to wait a minute once, not every time I open Report Explorer to print
another report.

Thank you,
MB.

nardmoseley

Try creating the the report explorer form and opening the rbItem and rbTable
datasets. You can create the form and then later call ReportExplorer.Execute
to show it.

--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

No, that didn't help. I actually have both datasets (rbItem and rbFolders)
opened in the design time, so I don't need
to open them in the run time. Also creating another report explorer form
instance in the process and working with it
results in having the same problem.

My further research showed that the main slow down occurs in the
ReportExplorerUnit in the LoadStateInfo procedure
on the following string:
FListView.FolderId := lIniStorage.ReadInteger('Explorer Form State',
'Selected Folder', 0);
It happens when you try to write something into the FListView.FolderId
property.

There in the ppRptExp.pas "GetItemsForFolder" procedure is being called
which is the reason of the slow down.
Unfortunately I couldn't research it further because I couldn't put a
breakpoint inside the ppRptExp.pas even when I tried
to copy the file into my main project directory.

What do I need to do now?

Thank you,
MB.

nardmoseley

Modify your Delphi library path from RBuilder\Lib to RBuilder\Source, then
you can trace the code in the Delphi debugger.

--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors Corporation
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Deepest analyse showed that the main slowdown on your part occurs in the
following code (ppDBPipe unit):

function TppDBPipeline.TraverseBy(aIncrement: Integer): Integer;
begin
if (FDataLink.DataSet <> nil) then
Result := FDataLink.DataSet.MoveBy(aIncrement)
else
Result := 0;
end;

on the following string:
"Result := FDataLink.DataSet.MoveBy(aIncrement)"

There control goes to Borland. As far as I could trace it the main slowdown
in their code occurs at the
"function TBDEDataSet.GetRecord(Buffer: PChar; GetMode: TGetMode; DoCheck:
Boolean): TGetResult;"
in "DBTables" unit on the following line of code:

case GetMode of
....
gmNext:
Status := DbiGetNextRecord(FHandle, dbiNoLock, Buffer, @FRecProps);

Since they do not provide the source for BDE calls, I couldn't trace it
deeper, but I don't think it would have much
sence. I doubt that I can optimize their code.

In sum: tracing the code didn't help.
Do you have any more ideas?

Thank you,
MB.

rbuser

Oh yeah, if it helps - I have some code in the Template.OnLoadStart and
Template.DoOnLoadEnd events.
Further testing showed that the slowdown on the second loading of
ReportExplorer occurs if the OnLoadStart event contains the following
string:
"DataModuleUnit.ContinueLoading:=true;"
But I have absolutely no idea how could this simple assignment affect the
ReportExplorer loading process, especially considering the fact that I have
few alike strings there. Most probably this is not directly related.
Well, it might still help to solve the problem.

Thank you,
MB.

P.S.: Here is the source code of my Template.OnLoadStart event. Just in
case..

procedure TReportComponentsDialog.DoOnLoadStart(Sender: TObject; Stream:
TStream);
Var
SqlObject :TdaSQL;
i,j :Integer;
begin
SeparateDialog:=false;
CurRepId:=ItemsTable.FieldByName('ITEM_ID').AsVariant;

Case DataModuleUnit.LastAction of
roPrint,roPreview:
begin
ReportComponentsDialog.Editing:=true;
ReportComponentsDialog.ParametersPipeline.Visible:=true;
DataModuleUnit.ContinueLoading:=true;
if ReportExplorerDialog.HasParameters then begin
ReportFillParamsDialog.ShowModal;
end;
if not DataModuleUnit.ContinueLoading then begin
Abort;
end;
end;
roDesign,roOther:
begin
Editing:=true;
ParametersPipeline.Visible:=false;
if ReportExplorerDialog.HasParameters then begin
ReportFillParamsDialog.CurRepId:=ReportExplorerDialog.CurRepId;
ReportFillParamsDialog.ReloadData;
ParametersPipeline.Visible:=true;
end;
ReportParametersDialog.FormShow(nil);
end;
end;

ParamsReload;
ExecuteSP;
if DataModuleUnit.LastAction <> roOther then begin
if not (DataModuleUnit.LastAction in
[roPrint,roPreview,roSilentPreview]) then begin
ReportSqlListDialog.ShowModal;
end
else begin
ReportSqlListDialog.LoadData;
end;
GeneratePipelines;
DataModuleUnit.LastAction:=roOther;
end
else begin
GeneratePipelines;
end;
TempReport:=TppReport(TppReportTemplate(Sender).Report);
TempReport.NoDataBehaviors:=[ndBlankReport];
end;

nardmoseley

Try running one of the RBuilder\Demos\EndUser Databases examples that does
not contain any event handler code.

I would think that the biggest delay in initializing the report explorer
form is going to be opening the folder and item datasets and initializing
the treeview and list view. But this is not related to loading any reports
from the database.

I do not know what DataModuleUnit.ContinueLoading:=true is.



--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com