Optimizing Performance

Using Lasso with FileMaker Pro offers the one of the quickest ways to serve your FileMaker Pro data on the Web. The following guidelines will assist with understanding how to maintain top performance.

Sorts - On large databases, sorting can dramatically affect performance. This is a FileMaker Pro imposed limitation.

Contains Searching - On large databases, performing "contains" type searching can dramatically affect performance. This is a FileMaker Pro imposed limitation.

Encoding Large Text Fields - Character encoding can dramatically affect performance on large text fields. For example: our tests show display of all 64k (FileMaker Pro maximum limit) of text at around 15 seconds with character encoding on (default and/or "URL" type options) and at 1 second with it off (set to "raw"). Unless you need the features of encoded text, set large text fields to "raw" type for optimum performance.

Limiting Records Returned - Limiting the number of records returned (setting the [maxrecords] value) can increase the "perceived" performance of your Lasso/FileMaker Pro Web database solution. Users can retrieve additional sets of records by using the [next] and [prev] commands.

Number of CGIs and Applications Running - Limiting the number of CGIs on your Mac OS Web server can boost performance. Certain applications and CGIs are notorious as CPU processing hogs. By consolidating your CGIs to a few main multi-threaded, fast, well-coded applications, you'll increase performance (and stability).

Standard Mac OS Web Server Optimization Techniques

Web servers like WebSTAR - Disable logging, close log window, make sure WebSTAR is always in the foreground.

Standard Mac OS Web Server - Use PowerMacs, disable AppleTalk, keep disk partition size low, investigate RAM file caching routines in newer Mac OS Web servers.