Sluggish Wiki

[Mike_Smith]

Hi Gents,

I've installed DekiWiki (opensource version) on windows xp as per installation guide on the documents page. It works brilliant but the only problem is its sluggish. Your demo online is faster than the local intranet dekiwiki. Ive set it up on 3 different machines and I get the same result on all 3. It takes about 3 seconds or more to load a page in the wiki. 2 systems were windows xp and 1 was windows 2000. The machines are sitting idle so its not like they overloaded or anything, and its also not the network because we have Flexwiki on another machine and it replies instantanious.

Could someone give me some advice on how I could speed up Dekiwiki? Anything is worth a shot because its an awesom package, but it defeats the purpose if its sluggish and slow :(

Thanks in advance,
Mike Smith

[SteveB]

Are you familiat with Firebug under Firefox? It's a little tool that can show load times for individual parts of the page. Once installed, you can load a page, then click on its icon in the bottom right corner of your browser, then click on the 'Net' tab and take a screenshot.

Delays can be caused for various reasons and this would help us narrow it down. Thanks.

[Mike_Smith]

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/7091/timevf2.png

Hope that helps :)

Thanks!

[SteveB]

Argh... those load times are atrocious!

I wonder why 'Storage_version6.swf' is not found? Can you check if that file exists? You should be able to located using 'dir /s storage_version6.swf'.

Although, I'm not sure how much it's worthwhile figuring this out. In Hayes, we dumped the Dojo framework (that's where the 'storage_version6.swf' file came from) and have done a lot of perf improvements across the board.

[Mike_Smith]

I found a possible reason for the slow loading times. The php "log level" was set very high so I assume it was almost debugging every page. I also turned off imagemagicK so its alot more speedier.

I managed to find that file:

C:\dekiwiki\skins\common\Storage_version6.swf

What is the purpose of this swf? Which is the correct location for it? Or if its not needed where can I remove the call for it?

I would love to try out the Hayes release but unfortunately its only a Beta and I really need a stable release so unfortunately Hayes is out of the question :( I will keep my eyes glued for a final release :D Hopefully the porting from gooseberryplus to the final release of Hayes will be possible.

Another thing I would like to make a note of is the link:

http://doc.opengarden.org/DekiWiki/Installation_Guide/Windows_XP
This step by step guide is great! Thats normally the main problem for many Windows platform users is that most wiki documentation is for linux and unix systems with the /usr and /etc/ which means nothing to us users that aren't familiar with it so we can't relate. Going step by step and including the exact versions of everything you need is brilliant and I hope there will be one for the Hayes final release :)

I'm really still stoked and awesom'o'fied by Dekiwiki. Its an awesom product and best of all its free...You guys should setup the homepage with a "Donation" button for contributions. Although I myself cant donate thousands of dollars i'm sure if everyone gives a bit it would help ;)

[birissou]

Hi,

Very useful feedback :) as I just noticed I have equally atrocious speed feedback on the php scripts. Where do you change the php log level in Linux ? Thanks in advance,

Bertrand.

[Mike_Smith]

You still alive SteveB ?

[SteveB]

Yes, yes. Been busy getting Hayes out the door. Lots of long days and nights! :)

Porting from Gooseberry to Hayes will be a snap. The install script will take care of adjusting the database schema and what have you. Of course, you should make a backup of the database before, just in case.

Now, concerning the .swf file, that was something that Dojo required. Since then, we nixed Dojo because it was just too fat and slow. Anyway, the file is pretty small and should load quickly. So, I'm guessing that for some reason the server is denying access to that file in that folder. Try loading another file in your browser (like a .css or .js file) from that folder by doing: http://yourserver.com/skins/common/some_js_file.js
If that works, then try http://yourserver.com/skins/common/Storage_version6.swf and see what happens. In both cases, it just load the requested file immediately.

[Mike_Smith]

Sorry for rushing SteveB :)

ok i tried what you said. I loaded:
http://myserver/skins/common/Storage_version6.swf
http://myserver/skins/common/dojo.js
And they both loaded fine in IE. The swf loaded a blank screen but i guess its meant to be like that....

I got dekiwiki now installed on 4 different machine and I get the same 404 for that same file on all the machines :confused:

Help! Thanks ;)

[SteveB]

When you hover over the .swf file in firebug, it shows the link used to load the file. Does that link correspond to the one you pasted above? If yes, try renaming the file. It might still not find it, but the 404 might come back faster.

[Mike_Smith]

Nope i renamed it and it takes just as long to request it. I also made copies of it and put it in different locations but it still didn't help.

Would it be possible to edit the .php file where its called and comment out the request for it?

Regards,
Mike

[Newton K]

Hmmm I've loaded 2.01b on debian 4.01 and Hayes is running painfully slow on every request.

I'm trying to find out what logging might be affecting it. I can't seem to find where teh php logging is set... grrr!

What seems to be getting bigger is files in:


/var/log/mysql.log/ 25M
/var/log/deki-api.log 3.5M

But they are not getting bigger very fast- and they aren't exactly huuuge.

This is the firebug output from the browser (attached). It claims 1-6 secs per page, but it seems like 4-12 to me... this output is a FAST page, some take much longer. None report missing files...

Any ideas, Kind Sirs?

BTW: Perhaps related, perhaps not- but in running Hayes, I've noticed so far;

a). When cutting and pasting in content from other wikis, documents, etc. (anything with formatting).
Once you have got the page ready to be saved, as soon as you do, one of the following will happen:
1. The Page Title gets lost, or
2. All the edited content gets lost and you get an error page saying someone else is editing that page

b) The DekiWiki home page remains entitled DekiWiki in the navbar when you change the title of the top page. I've tried to change thiss page's name, which works, but the navbar stays DekiWiki no matter what. I've even tried to take it back to DekiWiki and then something else, no go. This happened when I first set it up, and the UI behaviour seemed stange also (though now I know it's just slow)

Many thanks in advance, N

[SteveB]

Mike,

the .swf file is included by the Dojo javascript libraries. I have no idea from where though. Sorry. :(

[SteveB]

Newton,

You can only change the name of the homepag from inside the control panel under site settings.

Concerning copy/paste, it should work, but there is a gotcha. Maybe you can work around it somehow. We expect the first line to be <h1></h1> element. This is what will be used to become the page title. I'm not sure what the impact of extraneous <h1> tags are. They might be causing some of the issues you're seeing.

[Newton K]

You can only change the name of the homepage from inside the control panel under site settings.

Ahh I've tried this, it is missing (as is probably known); in Gooseberry, it was under Network Settings (/Admin:Configuration). I've attached a screenshot of the menu from Hayes Beta.


Concerning copy/paste, it should work, but there is a gotcha. Maybe you can work around it somehow. We expect the first line to be <h1></h1> element. This is what will be used to become the page title. I'm not sure what the impact of extraneous <h1> tags are. They might be causing some of the issues you're seeing.Thanks, I've tried a few things, editing the content never seems to work- removing all the H1 tags visible uin the WYSIWIG UI doesn't help. If you cut and paste anything into the existing page title (making sure it remains displayed as h1), it is guaranteed to cause this error (ie lose all the content on the page during the save operation)

Thing is, when copy adn pasting, you still usually have it in the clipbpard, so its simply a matter of pasting and editing the content (as may be necessary) again- but it is definately a bug and will affect new users.

[AaronF]

I'll take blame for this H1 nonsense. It was an attempt to be semantically rigorous. A page should only have 1 title... We should probably correct this in a future release and just use a class=title.

[Newton K]

H1 tags; They might be causing some of the issues you're seeing. Thanks Steve. I've been hunting for multiple h1 tags in the xml and there are none that I can find yet (I'm still going). Can I turn some logging on or off somehwere to troublehsoot this?

How can I reduce logging to /var/log/deki-api.log or some other logs? It is not reportnig anything (bad looking).

Thing is, I'd really like to be able to show it to some people this week... it is really great, except it is way too slow to demo.

[Newton K]

I'll take blame for this H1 nonsense. It was an attempt to be semantically rigorous. A page should only have 1 title... We should probably correct this in a future release and just use a class=title.Oh... I see now- h1 is the wiki's tag for both entries shown as <title> and <h1>: Needless to say I've found there ARE multiple h1s in there... I'm fixing the content now, will let you know if it speeds things up any...

[PeteE]

How can I reduce logging to /var/log/deki-api.log or some other logs? It is not reportnig anything (bad looking).


Newton K - If you'd like to turn off logging, edit the /var/www/deki-hayes/bin/mindtouch.host.exe.config file and comment out the following section:



<!--
<root>
<level value="DEBUG" />
<appender-ref ref="RollingFile-trace" />
<appender-ref ref="RollingFile-info" />
<appender-ref ref="RollingFile-warn" />
<appender-ref ref="ConsoleAppender" />
<appender-ref ref="OutputDebugStringAppender" />
</root>
-->


Then restart dekihost:

/etc/init.d/dekihost restart

[royk]

Ahh I've tried this, it is missing (as is probably known); in Gooseberry, it was under Network Settings (/Admin:Configuration). I've attached a screenshot of the menu from Hayes Beta.

do you have the latest beta release? (i think it'd 1.81c now) if so, can you access it by typing the URL directly? (/Admin:SiteSettings)

[royk]

Thanks, I've tried a few things, editing the content never seems to work- removing all the H1 tags visible uin the WYSIWIG UI doesn't help. If you cut and paste anything into the existing page title (making sure it remains displayed as h1), it is guaranteed to cause this error (ie lose all the content on the page during the save operation)

do you have the content you're trying to copy available to share? if we can repro the issue locally, we can track down the issue much faster :) afaik, the multiple <h1> should not be causing a problem - although *not* having a <h1> to start would be quite problematic

[Newton K]

do you have the latest beta release? (i think it'd 1.81c now) if so, can you access it by typing the URL directly? (Admin:SiteSettings) Thanks Roy, Sorry, I haven't compiled it yet, I've not got an environment setup at work. I'm using 1.8.0 beta 2.1. So for the mo I miss out until there's a .tar.gz up on SF...

[merktnichts]

I'm using 1.8.0 beta 2.1. So for the mo I miss out until there's a .tar.gz up on SF...
There is. The 1.8.1x packages contain all compiled binaries PLUS the sources. Thus the filename, I guess. So usually there's no need to compile on your own.

[SteveB]

Newton,

We actually found a major perf issue just yesterday that might be causing issues that you and others have observed. It only applies to large pages (1000+ lines long). It has been fixed in trunk and will be made available in a few days.

[Newton K]

Newton, We actually found a major perf issue just yesterday that might be causing issues that you and others have observed. It only applies to large pages (1000+ lines long). It has been fixed in trunk and will be made available in a few days.Thank you for the update Steve, Merktnichts.

Maybe I should just use Gooseberry for the demo- but I'll try 1.81b and see how these fixes go.

I have put some large pages together; avoiding using the h1 style altogether. Speed is still slow. If there is any chance you can put together a tar.gz by Monday I might be able to implement it in time, but this would assume you get it done by Monday... I'll wait with interest in the meantime adn let you know how 1.81b goes.

[PeteE]

Thank you for the update Steve, Merktnichts.

Maybe I should just use Gooseberry for the demo- but I'll try 1.81b and see how these fixes go.

I have put some large pages together; avoiding using the h1 style altogether. Speed is still slow. If there is any chance you can put together a tar.gz by Monday I might be able to implement it in time, but this would assume you get it done by Monday... I'll wait with interest in the meantime adn let you know how 1.81b goes.

I'm willing to do a 1.8.1c release anytime. I'll talk to SteveB about it tomorrow and see if he agrees. We have some other fixes I'd really like to get out as well.

[Mike_Smith]

Ok thanks anyways for the help Steve. Its alot better after setting the levels of php debug levels low. Its fast but would be awesom if it could go faster but I'm still overhappy with gooseberry. Im sure Heyes will be faster so I can't wait for a final release and port over to Heyes from Gooseberry :) Windows XP compatibility is awesom :D

[Newton K]

I'm willing to do a 1.8.1c release anytime. I'll talk to SteveB about it tomorrow and see if he agrees. We have some other fixes I'd really like to get out as well.

:D Just do a 'd' release if you need to!

If you can find a way to ge a release out Sunday night it will give me Monday to try it (I'm 10 hours ahead of you).

Adding fertilizer after the planting can be more sustainable way to encourage growth... (don't mind me, I'm just being selfish as I'd love to see the fixes in c)

:) N

[PeteE]

:D Just do a 'd' release if you need to!

If you can find a way to ge a release out Sunday night it will give me Monday to try it (I'm 10 hours ahead of you).

Adding fertilizer after the planting can be more sustainable way to encourage growth... (don't mind me, I'm just being selfish as I'd love to see the fixes in c)

:) N

Newton K - hahaha, I like the quote. :) I happen to have absolutely nothing going on tonight (which is a good thing for once :)) so i'll get a .c release out within a few hours.

[PeteE]

Newton K - I uploaded a new release to sourceforge but they're current undergoing "maintenance". Ugh! I hate SF soooo much sometimes. Their tools are horrendous but at least the bandwidth is free...

Hayes 1.8.1.c should be available shortly...

thanks,
pete

[Newton K]

I uploaded a new release to sourceforge.. Hayes 1.8.1.c should be available shortly... thanks, peteLegendary Pete, just trying to make it work now.. ;)

[sbaptista]

> A page should only have 1 title... We should probably correct this in a future release and just use a class=title

If only one title, then id=title.