327519 - Loading large document with XForms freezes all tabs and windows

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: XForms, defect)

Description

[Steve Speicher]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20060214 Firefox/1.6a1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20060214 Firefox/1.6a1

I encountered this problem when attempting to use an XForms processor: Firefox, XSmiles or formsPlayer to update the Last Call comments from the link above  (actually, it was all on my local system at the time).

When I select the trigger to add a new comment record, it takes over a minute for Firefox to return control to me.  It takes even longer to load the initial document or reload.

So I see this broken down as:
  - Why isn't this running in a background thread so the user can continue doing other things?
  - Obviously, if user is waiting for a response, hopefully the performance can be improved upon.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load referenced/attachement
2. Select Add Comment trigger at bottom
3. wait, wait, wait

Actual Results:  
you waited

Expected Results:  
you didn't wait

Comment 1

[Steve Speicher]

Attachment: reduced last call tracking sample

Comment 2

[aaronr]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Created an attachment (id=212137) [edit]
> reduced last call tracking sample
> 

I got control back in about 5-6 seconds for me.  Does it take a minute for you when you try this testcase off of bugzilla or was that in your original testcase before you reduced it?

I agree that we should put up a clock or something in place of the mouse pointer when we go to rebuild a model due to an action like insert.  I don't know how well spinning things off in another thread would work, though.  For example, I don't know if it is such a good idea for the user to interact with any of the controls while the model is in the rebuilding, recalculating, revalidating, refreshing process.  But it would be nice if the user could use the frame controls to open another window to do some other work, check the JS Console, etc.

Comment 3

[Allan Beaufour]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > Created an attachment (id=212137) [edit]
> > reduced last call tracking sample
> > 
> 
> I got control back in about 5-6 seconds for me.  Does it take a minute for you
> when you try this testcase off of bugzilla or was that in your original
> testcase before you reduced it?
>
> I agree that we should put up a clock or something in place of the mouse
> pointer when we go to rebuild a model due to an action like insert.  I don't
> know how well spinning things off in another thread would work, though.  For
> example, I don't know if it is such a good idea for the user to interact with
> any of the controls while the model is in the rebuilding, recalculating,
> revalidating, refreshing process.  But it would be nice if the user could use
> the frame controls to open another window to do some other work, check the JS
> Console, etc.

Yes, we should preferably
1) indicate to the user that we are busy
2) only "snatch" the current tab

Bit I do not know if we can do anything about 2)... a wild-running script also hogs the entire browser, does it not?

Comment 4

[Steve Speicher]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Bit I do not know if we can do anything about 2)... a wild-running script also
> hogs the entire browser, does it not?

It sort of does, it presents a dialog to the user asking if they want to stop the long running script or continue.  I guess that XForms never hits it since there isn't a single long running script or because it's XBL (but repeat isn't XBL-ized so I don't know). 

Comment 5

[Steve Speicher]

An update on this (downgrading severity)...

Overall newer optimized builds work well.  Change data for the first time is slow but subsequent updates are very fast.

I also noticed that if you have multiple windows open (Ctrl+N), XForms extension will freeze ALL open windows, not just tabs in current window.  A bit unfriendly.

Comment 6

[aaronr]

changing title back.  Sorry, I thought this was still a performance issue but it isn't.  It is now a usability issue.

Comment 7

[David Bolter [:davidb] (NeedInfo me for attention)]

RIP xforms