[Schimmi]

Hi!

After using OmniFocus for a few months I have a quite extensive database (maybe 40 contexts, 20 screen pages of (non-completed) actions). Changing views really feels slow now. It takes a second or so just to switch between context and project view. Working on a specific task is fast though, same for scrolling.

I already recreated the database, but it does not help. I fear that it will get even slower with time until the point to be unusable. I guess this is not the way it is supposed to be. Anybody else experiencing this with a big database

Regards
Schimmi

[curt.clifton]

The delay seems to be proportional to the number of items displayed, not the number of items in the database. Switching from Context to Planning mode takes about a second for me if I have my 16 or so screen pages of remaining actions showing in Planning mode. If I use the Show All Items perspective, then the switch takes 4 or 5 seconds, because showing the completed items increases my list to nearly 100 screen pages of actions. (Wow, I've gotten a lot done since May!)

I seldom look at my completed items. My list of active items stays at a fairly constant size, since I faithfully put projects on-hold if I'm not really going to work on them. So if the delay is really proportional to the number of items displayed, I don't anticipate having any problems.

[Schimmi]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

The delay seems to be proportional to the number of items displayed, not the number of items in the database.

Of course the delay and the items displayed are related. But even for perspectives with only very few actions there is a delay which can be noticed. And I already try to avoid switching to the planning view often because of the 1 sec delay that might await me, and another 0,5-1 sec to switch back.

It doesn't sound a lot, but it makes working slow if you change the view a lot.

Stefan

[jasong]

And heaven forfend you happen to be on a slow machine for a few days, say, a 12" PowerBook with 1GHz G4 and 768 MB of RAM, with Leopard.

Switching to context mode takes about three seconds (Active/Context/Project/Remaining/Any/Any), showing 15 of 46 contexts (some of those are "test" contexts).

Switching to planning mode take about five seconds (all projects/ungrouped/unsorted/any/any/any), showing about 260 rows).

Selecting all those projects takes about six seconds.

Switching from All projects to Active projects takes about 5 seconds, and switching back takes about the same.

I don't think what's displayed matters, because OF has to go through everything in its database to know what to display anyway.

[Toadling]

After OG gets the 1.0 release out the door, I really hope app performance gets some attention. While I haven't seen delays as long as those mentioned by jasong, I do wish OmniFocus was a bit snappier. Searching across the entire Library, in particular, feels sluggish to me.

For now, I think Curt is right about the number of items displayed. It might not be the only factor affecting performance, but reducing the number of viewable items certainly seems to help.

I also think the LeaveEmptySelectionEmpty hidden default make the app feel snappier. With it on, OmniFocus shows nothing in the content area when nothing is selected in the sidebar, which makes for really fast switching between Project and Context Mode. You can turn on the hidden default by pasting this into Terminal:

defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus LeaveEmptySelectionEmpty -bool YES

You can see the original thread here:

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthre...7712#post27712

[Schimmi]

Originally Posted by Toadling

defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus LeaveEmptySelectionEmpty -bool YES

At least this does not help in my case.

Schimmi

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by jasong

I don't think what's displayed matters, because OF has to go through everything in its database to know what to display anyway.

Not true. OmniFocus is using a relational database as its back-end. With appropriate indexing the relational database engine can spit out answers without going through all the items. It's one of the under-appreciated technical marvels that makes most of our large computer systems go. Think of a paper phone book. If you want to look up a number, you don't have to go through the whole book, you just flip to the right section, home in on the right page by looking at the starting and ending names on the pages, then scan for the data. (One day soon that phone book analogy won't work anymore, since we all let the computer due the searching for us now.)

There is certainly room to fine-tune the indexing in OF, and to display partial results while continuing to collect the items that would be off-screen. I look forward to a 1.x release that does those things.

[ext555]

[QUOTE=Toadling;30440]

I also think the LeaveEmptySelectionEmpty hidden default make the app feel snappier. With it on, OmniFocus shows nothing in the content area when nothing is selected in the sidebar, which makes for really fast switching between Project and Context Mode. You can turn on the hidden default by pasting this into Terminal:

defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus LeaveEmptySelectionEmpty -bool YES

After trying this, it seemed to shut down my perspectives from the menu ? they all seem to be greyed out , and only accessible from the folder icon on the toolbar . I'm using tiger still so maybe it's a leopard thing ?

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by ext555

After trying this, it seemed to shut down my perspectives from the menu ? they all seem to be greyed out , and only accessible from the folder icon on the toolbar . I'm using tiger still so maybe it's a leopard thing ?

I have not seen this in Leopard, and I have no way of testing it in Tiger. So it may very well be a bug.

To remove the hidden global, you can use this command:

defaults delete com.omnigroup.OmniFocus LeaveEmptySelectionEmpty

BTW, be sure to quit OmniFocus before running the command (or at least relaunch OF afterwards).