InfoPath Dev

Hi everyone,

I am facing a big issue using InfoPath for my reporting project developed in C#.

When one of my form is edited with Infopath, the CPU goes up to 100%, even on small forms on the user's computer. This happens even when the InfoPath window is minized. I tried to remove the tabs and section objects that was not usefull (about 50% of them) as suggested in the Microsoft documentation about Infopath performance issues, but this didn't improve a lot.

I would like to know wether there is something I have to do to improve performance, or is it an issue that comes with Infopath and there is nothing that can be done to avoid it.

My Infopath forms have several data connections that fill some comboBoxes, and have some code behind in C# (OnAfterChange events, and OnSave events). Some of them have rules + data validation.

Cheers,

Yann.

http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=618

Hope this helps

Thanks Mahitha.
I've already read this thread, but I did not find any solution.

I am wondering why InfoPath takes so much ressources when running.

For very complex forms InfoPath can take 100% CPU for periods of time. The key is to optimize your operations to be efficient to avoid this. If your form is very simple I'm surprised you're running into this problem. How many fields do you have on the form and how many OnAfterChange events do you have firing?

I have checked one of the most complex form I have designed. I have 5 on AfterChange events, 4 buttons with OnClick events, about 180 fields and 75 % of them have validion, conditional conformating or rules to valid/apply.
And a lot of those fields are grouped in repeating sections. This form also has 24 data connections (one for each conbobox).Most of them return about 10 records, but I have one which returns 2000 records ...

On the other hand I have a small form with only 50 fields, 6 data Connections, and a few validion, conditional conformating or rules to valid/apply. This form also takes 100% CPU .

Ok this is good info. What operation specifically pegs the CPU at 100%? Is it just filling out any field and clicking TAB or onLoad, or something else?

Also, once your form is loaded:
1) how many repeating sections are visible at one time?
2) for the query which returns 2000 records are all those selections in a single dropdown? (That alone will cause big perf issues.)

Hi Chiraz,

I have tested my forms without the query which returns 2000 records, and the performance has increased a lot !! Now the forms take 100% on the CPU only while loading the form or saving the form. And while filling the form the CPU is under 10% ... this is an unexpected improvement.

Thank you very much for your help and having guided me to the issue with the query.

Yann.

You're very welcome. To explain a little further, what is happening is that all those 2000 items are displayed in the dropdown. Since the InfoPath is in effect just an HTML view what's really going on is that all those 2000 items are <option> items for the HTML dropdown! That really bloats the HTML view and wreaks havoc on InfoPath's view optimization algorithms. Actually you'd see a similar issue in Internet Explorer as well since that's the same rendering engine InfoPath uses. Of course IE alone isn't doing all the other stuff that IP does. Cheers.

Hi everybody,

I have the same problem : I have to fill a dropdown list with several thousands items (~7000) and this takes a lot of time and CPU resources. But it couldn't be a problem if I could have a button "Disconnection" or something like that, which allows to cut the link with the database for the follow-up of the form.

So is it possible to stop the link with a database to optimize the global performances???

Thanks a lot in advance.

Nicolas.

Nobody to help me? Please!!!
:)

Nico.

To solve this issue, I have replaced the DropDownList in my form with a read only textbox to display the user's selection and a button. When the user clicks on the button, a window of selection shows up. This window has been written in C# and is in a dll (I can use it in all my InfoPath forms now).

This implies that the data is loaded only when the user clicks on the button, and that the ressources are released when the window is closed.

Hope this helps.
Cheers

Niko,

If the data connection you are refering to is a secondary one, you can uncheck the "load when the form opens" box which is on the last window of the data connection setup. I do this often for performance reasons. This way you control when the data is loaded and only load it when it is necessary. To query a data connection manually you just need to use a rule on a field, or with a condition in open rules, or where ever using the Query type.

Hope this helps.

Hello,

first, thank you for your answers.

rocknbananas:
your solution seems to be very interesting but unfortunately I don't really have skills in C# programming... (I've only already programmed in C and Java, but not really in depth!) :s
Is your solution really complicated or should I try to follow this option??? Maybe a little part of code could help?

clayfox:
I've eactly done what you suggest, and you're right, it allows to load data only when I want, but the problem is that data is never unloaded! And so the follow-up of the form (almost the half) is very slow...

Otherwise, I've tried to look in the manifest.xsf file how the data connection is done and I've found the following expression : "<xsf:queryAction adapter="Articles">" , where Articles is the name of my table. Do you think a handling is possible in this file? I didn't found any explanation about this (excepted :http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb265093.aspx but it's really light)

Any comment/help/advice is welcome!

Nico

Hi Nico,
You need our Database Accelerator to filter the items to reduce the amount you are downloading. You can also use it with a button to requery and refresh which will support unload and reload. For a free dev download (with a fully functional EnumDB Web method - completely free for your scenario in Beta version) go to the following link and click Free Dev Download:http://www.qdabra.com/proddetail.asp?prod=QDBXL1. We have a forum devoted to helping people out with this Web Service Suite http://www.infopathdev.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=61) or you can just reply here.
Happy trails!

OK, thank you guys!!!
I'm going to try to solve my problem in this way.
I would probably have lots of questions for you later :)

Maybe you would have examples for me, so as to put myself on the good way?

See you!