Appendix: Optimizing Performance

Web Server Tips

• A properly configured web server has only the bare minimum of System Extensions and Control Panels installed or enabled.

• Avoid using File Sharing on your web server machine unless you need to.

• Configure the Memory Control Panel with perhaps a largish 2024K disk cache size.

• Disable your web server's option for reverse DNS lookup.

• The web server should DEFINITELY run as the frontmost application.

• Avoid running unnecessary additional programs on your web server.

• If you run additional programs on your web server, do some performance comparisons with these other applications both running and not running. Some ftp software, for example, can severely affect web server performance. Most web servers have a transaction duration parameter (tick count) which can be enabled for comparison purposes.

• Run the most recent versions of Open Transport, your web server software, and FileMaker Pro.

FileMaker Pro Tips

• Keep FileMaker Pro a hidden background application. If a database layout is visible during a database request, than screen redraw of a database window can severely affect database performance. Here are three options for hiding database windows:
  1. Select "Hide Others" from the application menu.
  2. Use WindowShade to double-click and display only a title bar for a database window, thus hiding the current database layout.
  3. Make the default database layout sparse with graphics and database fields.

• Allocate a sizeable amount of free RAM to the FileMaker Pro application. 8MB is good, 16MB or more may be better.

• Consider the risks and benefits of using a RAM disk for the actual database file, since FileMaker Pro tasks are disk intensive.

• Store and open your database from the hard drive or RAM disk of your local machine. In other words, avoid opening the database as a client of another machine hosting the database as this will add noticeable network overhead.

• Avoid enabling multi-user mode for your databases unless you need to.

• When adding or updating database records, specify a target layout for the transaction. This may require that you modify your database with a new layout and fewer fields. The fewer the fields on a target layout there are the fewer fields that must be dealt with.

• Database calculation fields which evaluate HTML should normally have their Storage Options set to "Do not store calculation results Ñ calculate only when needed". This is especially important if your web solution creates new database records, since you do not want FileMaker Pro to evaluate the formula again and again on each field update. One exception might be the "html" field and any other fields which are generally returned as a hit list of found records. Certainly never index an HTML calculation field unless you intend to use the index for a value list.

• ScriptMaker scripts invoked via a web browser should be visible in the Script menu.

• Periodically use FileMaker Pro's command to "Save a compressed copy" of your database.