Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

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Bradley Stevens
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Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Bradley Stevens »

We are experiencing extreme latency with our Help and Manual tool. We’ve been using the tool for a number of months, and the latency within the application recently became so bad that we cannot do our work.

Our technical teams are working to review server, OS and network performance, but have yet to find the bottleneck.

We now think it may have something to do with the folder structure. We run Windows. We have the Help and Manual program writing to a single output folder. The site is quite large, and our single folder now contains 2292 files. One of our technical resources stated that Windows begins to lag once we get that many files in a single folder.

Have you ever seen issues where the size of the output folder creates problems with latency during save, publish, data entry and navigation functions within the Help and Manual tool itself? If so, is there any way we can write to multiple output folders and have our URL pull from more than 1 source?

Thanks,
-Bradley-
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John Waller
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by John Waller »

Which version of Windows?
Regards

John Waller
v.6.2.2 Build 2636
Bradley Stevens
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Bradley Stevens »

Windows XP Professional Version 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3P_gdr.120504-1619 : Service Pack 3)

Help and Manualy Professional Edition Version 6.0.2 Build 2352. I understand Version 6.1 is available and I'm trying to work with my client to coordinate the upgrade.
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John Waller
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by John Waller »

Yes, the next question would be does this still occur with 6.1?

What about on a Win 7 machine?
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John Waller
v.6.2.2 Build 2636
Bradley Stevens
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Bradley Stevens »

Testing on a windows 7 machine is not an option. Our only option is to run on the version of windows we have going. I do not have access to to windows 7 machine.

I'm still working towards the version upgrade. My client is resistant to the version upgrade because they are weary of any further issues/complications. I am skeptical that upgrading to 6.1 will resolve the issue, but I do continue to push for the update.

Although my technical expertise is limited at best, this looks like a network issue to me. But since our network guys can't find the problem, we decided to come here and investigate our question about the single output folder. Does it have to be pointed at a single output folder?
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Martin Wynne
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Bradley Stevens wrote:Have you ever seen issues where the size of the output folder creates problems with latency during save, publish, data entry and navigation functions within the Help and Manual tool itself?
Hi Bradley,

The output folder is not used, and does not even need to exist, while working and saving in H&M itself. The output folder is created or written to only when you publish your project.

2,000 files is not too many. Large projects could easily produce far more than that and work fine. Your problems are almost certainly in your network connections and not related to H&M.

regards,

Martin.
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Tim Green
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Bradley,

I would urgently suggest that you should update to 6.1 as soon as possible. Build is stable and corrects a very large number of issues that have been identified since your version was released.

I would second what Martin wrote, the problem is almost certainly within your network. This may be being exacerbated by links to dead network resources in your project. Because of the inefficient way Windows resolves dead network links, this can radically slow down performance. Check for references to network resources that are not available in all the following places in your project:
  • Configuration > Common Properties > Project Search Path:
    This is where HM looks to find graphics files and snippets. Since it checks this list every time you access a topic containing references to graphics or snippets, dead network links here can have a significant effect.
  • File > Recent Projects:
    Check this list for inaccessible projects and delete their entries.
  • Configuration > Common Properties > Help Windows: HTML Help Options:
    Make sure that there are no links defined here to network resources that don't exist.

It is also possible to enter absolute links to linked snippet files within topics, rather than using the project search path, but those should only affect individual topics.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Steve Van Woert
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Steve Van Woert »

Hi,
I’ve been working with Bradley on the slow response time issue with the HM application. As it turns out, there was a network issue, and it has now been resolved. This has improved the response time of the application with regard to saving work and publishing.

However, during our investigation, we’re finding that the times for saving and publishing by various users seem to be increasing over time, and may increase to the point that the application becomes a considerable delay in their daily tasks. I assume this is because of the project / file growth.

As Bradley stated, we are using HM Professional Edition 6.0.2 Build 2352 and Win XP SP3. There are approx. 8 users. They’re all working on and saving the same project file and publishing to the same directories. All files and folders utilized are on the same remote network share. Currently, we can see times of 3-4 minutes for a save and 20 – 25 minutes for publishing. As well, the application takes up to 10 seconds to “flip” pages in their work. Again, these times are acceptable, but we want to ensure they don't grow too large.

I’ve done some searching of the forums and found some solutions for problems of Embedded Images and Unresolved Network References – for use with HM version 5. Would these solutions work for HM version 6? There is some evidence of embedded images in the project. Does the new version 6.1 that you're recommending resolve these specific issues? What other enhancements / bug fixes are in 6.1 that would improve response time?

Is the Professional Edition the proper version for our scenario? I assume that there must be considerable traffic on the network as the application is installed on user’s local machines and all files are on a remote network. Would this be better served if we had HM server edition on a server within the remote network?

Thanks,
Steve
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Tim Green
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Steve,
Currently, we can see times of 3-4 minutes for a save and 20 – 25 minutes for publishing. As well, the application takes up to 10 seconds to “flip” pages in their work. Again, these times are acceptable, but we want to ensure they don't grow too large.
Performance like this is definitely unacceptable and needs to be fixed. The first thing you should do is update all your users to the current version. Nothing can be done before you have done that. There have been significant improvements in network processing since your version, and also we can't provide any support unless you are using the current version, because any tests we perform or answers we provide would be by definition meaningless.

Embedded images can be a serious cause of slow editing performance. A couple of embedded images are OK, but you need to know that they take up a huge amount of memory and computer resources (many times their own uncompressed size) and having more than a few of them can slow down editing and will also unnecessarily bloat your project files. Images get embedded when you paste text and images from other programs. Help & Manual 6 automatically prompts the user to convert embedded images to external files on insertion and this prompt should be taken very seriously.

Your authors should definitely convert all embedded images to external files by right-clicking on them and selecting the convert option. You can identify embedded images by selecting them -- when selected, they do not turn "negative" in the same way as normal images. You can also locate embedded images by generating a full report with image references using the Report Tool in the Project tab, then search for the word "embedded" in the results.

Please also see the tips for network resources in my posting above in this thread. As far as I can see, you hadn't seen that yet when you posted your reply.

Another important issue is version control integration: Are your projects stored in version control system? If so, which one? Only Microsoft Visual SourceSafe is currently supported actively. Active support for SubVersion and Team Foundation Server are coming later this year.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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kstoecker
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by kstoecker »

To the OP Bradley,...

Were you able to find the issue causing your performance loss? I have a similar issue however with Win 7 clients running Ver 6.2.3 build 2670. Any insight would be appreciated.
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Tim Green
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Re: Help and Manual Application - Latency and Not Responding

Unread post by Tim Green »

kstoecker wrote:Were you able to find the issue causing your performance loss? I have a similar issue however with Win 7 clients running Ver 6.2.3 build 2670. Any insight would be appreciated.
Please update to the current version before posting. It may well not be relevant in this case but it is important to discuss all issues on the basis of the current version only. The current version of HM6 is 6.3.0 Build 2809. You can download the installer here (just install on top of your current version to update):

http://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html

Latency issues like this are almost always network related. See my posts further up in this thread for details.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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