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KFarrelly
KFarrelly
Known Participant
April 15, 2014
Question

RH11 Responsive HTML5 Rendering Delays?

  • April 15, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 787 views

I am using a trial of RH11 to investigate upgrading from RH9. We currently produce WebHelp but we're also thinking about trying Responsive HTML5 output since our application runs in IE and also Safari on iPad (the Webhelp on iPad, even that produced in RH11, has some issues with parts of the search tab being cut off from display...thus the thought to try Responsive ouput).

In the trial output of Responsive HTML5 used in IE, we experience delays anywhere from 3 to 5 sec up to 20 sec sometimes (usually less than 10 sec) as we use the interface. For example, when help first opens up and begins to display its content and interface components, there can be pauses until the content is finally displayed in the browser. Another noticeable delay time is anytime we happen to adjust our browser size on our desktops -- for example, maximize or downsize browser to fill up various amounts of the desktop screen so that we can see how the help layout adjusts itself given the amount of browser space available. This is in IE10 and 11. I did not expect such overhead or delays when trying out that help format. Webhelp ran from the same server doesn't have the delays.

Has anyone else experienced these Responsive HTML5 delays? If so, have you found any work arounds or settings in your help project or browsers that either contributed to the rendering delays or helped reduce the delays? I assume all the scripts that run behind the scenes are a factor. The delays occurred whether I used one of the standard screen layouts for the help or had made some adjustments to the layouts such as to its color scheme. With the delays we're experiencing now, the Responsive HTML5 help isn't as appealing an option as I had hoped.

Karen

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1 reply

Willam van Weelden
Willam van Weelden
Inspiring
April 16, 2014

Very strange, I have not seen these delays on any browser. Also resizing

normally is rather fluid.

What exactly is the problem with the rendering? Do you see the content,

but is the styling applied later? Do images load later? Or is everything

blank before the page shows at once?

This issue needs some debugging. Can you try the following? Open IE and

press F12. This will open the developer console. From there, select the

timing tab. With this tab open, open the output in IE. The browser

should now show you how much time all the elements are taking to load.

Can you post the results of that?

Kind regards,

Willam

KFarrelly
KFarrellyAuthor
Known Participant
April 16, 2014

Thank you for the reply William. Good to know my delays are not the norm. A couple examples of delay points and more details follow.

1. When help is first opened - browser remains blank for 3 to 5 seconds then all content and parts show up at fairly the same time. This is compared to WebHelp version of same content where all content shows immediately.

2. Another noticeable piece is within table of contents as click on books in it to see sub-books/topics. Sometimes there is a pause, a brief flash of a Loading message for that piece of the table of contents, and then the content under the clicked book opens. This delay seems to be the most frequent. Usually 3 to 5 seconds and because we have a layered table of contents with books, sub-books, and sub-sub-books to categorize the info, those seconds add up while drilling down through the table of contents. This delay seems to happen regardless of the browser size at the time of viewing.

Today I am not seeing one other points of delay, which was a sometimes brief displays of the images for the contents, search, etc tabs coming into view as the screen repainted itself to adjust for the changing browser size. I will watch more carefully for that in the future. In those cases, the background colors for the areas over which the images were to display would come into view first, then the tab images, and then the content in the main part of the screen.

Before I post some of the load results, please let me know if I am looking at the correct area of the dev console. I have a UI Responsiveness tab in my console. Is this what you are referring to?

Willam van Weelden
Willam van Weelden
Inspiring
April 17, 2014

That's the one. Try the following: go to an unrelated page and start the

responsiveness profiling. Type the URL of your help and let it run. When

the page is loaded, stop the profiling and look at the results.

You can sort by duration. That will show the slowest processes first. Do

you see one or multiple 'HTTP request ' as the ones with longest duration?

This issue sounds to start like a bandwith issue: There is too much data

for the device speed. That you don't see any delay supports this, as

your browser caches used resources. So any second or third visit will be

much faster. If you remove your internet history and local cache, you

should get the same delay again.

Kind regards,

Willam

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