System Options Prefetching page

Results batch size

These two options:

• Records download buffer size
• Other objects download buffer size

allow you to specify how many records, or other objects, should be downloaded at any one time. The buffer size can be set between 5 and 100.

Increasing these buffer sizes beyond 20 can improve performance, particularly on networks with high latency.

In general, it is suggested to set this number to be a size that contains twice the number of rows that you normally see on a results screen.

Prefetching objects

When a search is undertaken in Content Manager the results are returned as an array of unique identifiers for the object being searched for. For example, a record search may return a list of unique identifiers such as 1, 4, 77, 88, 999, etc. In order to display the actual records in the user interface, a batch of identifiers (e.g. 20) are selected from the result set and a command is sent to the Workgroup server to get the data required to construct the specified records. These records are subsequently added to the object cache. This batching process means that instead of 20 requests going to the Workgroup server, there is a single round trip (with 20 times the amount of data). This type of data transfer is very efficient for modern networks to undertake, rather than trying to establish lots of smaller conversations. In Content Manager, with its complex set of object relationships, in order to provide a satisfactory user interface, not only do the 20 records need to be downloaded, but also a number of related objects such as container record, assignee location, classification, etc. need to be populated. Once again, to avoid continuously requesting these additional objects as the user interface evolves, Content Manager can collect up a list of related objects that are likely to be displayed as part of displaying the initial batch of 20 records. A subsequent call can then be made to prefetch into the object cache this list of related objects. You can configure the behaviour of the object cache with regard to this prefetching behaviour for 4 of the key related object types for a record: Locations, Classifications, Containers and Schedules.

If the Content Manager users in your organisation do not use the objects mentioned here, there is no need to set the option.

Select the object types associated with records to prefetch:

• Locations
• Classifications
• Containers
• Schedules

Select from the prefetch styles:

• Never Prefetch - indicates that the related object types should never be prefetched - perhaps they are not a key element of the user interface at a particular customer site
• Basic Prefetch - instructs the Content Manager business layer to collect and download a truncated form of the related objects which can in some cases be faster
• Complete Prefetch - instructs the Content Manager business layer to exhaustively collect and download the related objects

Foreign Barcode prefetching

• The Prefetch Foreign Barcode identifiers for objects that have barcodes check box instructs Content Manager to look for any associated foreign barcodes that have been registered for objects that are being downloaded to the cache. You should uncheck this option if you don't use foreign barcodes, or turn it on if they are a key element of the usage of Content Manager