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I
Ian16B7
Inspiring
February 9, 2021
Question

Why is search functionality so slow in FM 2020?

  • February 9, 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 922 views

Using FM 2020 (16.0.1). 

We have recently begun using FM 2020, structured, with DITA 1.3. We are finding that the search function is incredibly slow. It is so slow as to make it almost unusable. When I search for a phrase that is in the last file in the DITAMAP, it takes 240-280 seconds (i.e. 4-5 minutes). When I search for that same phrase using Notepad++, it takes 6-7 seconds. This difference in speed is a factor of 40-50x.

 

We have a few hundred DITA files in the DITAMAP (i.e. moderate size) and all files are stored locally on my hard-drive (i.e. the slowness is not due to network considerations).

 

Does anyone else experience such incredible slowness with the search function? Why is it 40-50x slower than Notepad++?

This topic has been closed for replies.

5 replies

I
Ian16B7Author
Inspiring
October 26, 2022

I have not tried the newest Framemaker yet (2022 release from Sept), but according to the New Features, they have addressed this problem:

"DITA search performance improvement  ...  the search performance has improved by 15 times "

    I
    Ian16B7Author
    Inspiring
    February 12, 2021

    For those who would also like Adobe to address this shortcoming, please up-vote the following:

    https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-9669

     

     

    I
    Ian16B7Author
    Inspiring
    March 29, 2021

    Since I originally started this topic, I have been using FM and have observed that the slowness I mentioned previously affects related behaviours as well: find/replace, spelling, tracked changes, etc. While it is not surprising that all of these related functions show the same problem of slowness, I mention this observation because it demonstrates the widespread effect of this issue on overall usability.


    To allow an apples-to-apples comparison with other users, I have created a sample DITAMAP with files for testing purposes. These sample files have been attached to https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-9669. I then ran two different tests (each was run multiple times) to compare the speed of searching for text within Framemaker vs. Notepad++.


    Unzip the ZIP file from https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-9669 to its own directory.


    Test #1:
    1) Start FM (I use 16.0.1)
    2) Open the ditamap
    3) From the ditamap, right-click on the first DITA file (lorem_ipsum_text.dita) and open it.
    4) Click on some of the text in the newly opened DITA file
    5) Open the Find dialog, and select “Text” from the drop-down menu.
    6) Type “FINDME”
    7) Click Find and time how long it takes for FM to find this text (which is in the last file…)


    Test #2:
    1) Start Notepad++
    2) Select Search -> Find in Files

    3) Under Find what, enter "FINDME"

    4) Under filters, enter "*.dita; *.xml; *.ditamap"
    5) Select the directory containing the DITA files from this example
    6) Click Find all and time how long it takes to return a result

     

    My results:
    Test #1 (FrameMaker): ~34 s
    Test #2 (Notepad++): < 2 s

    Please test and post your results here.

      W
      Winfried Reng
      Braniac
      March 30, 2021

      OK. On my system (with some other applications open) FM took 18 seconds. Laptop with i7, 16 GB RAM.

      I do not use DITA. However, I think that FM has to open and process the single DITA files when you search for text.

      This would explain why Notepad++ is faster.

      I
      Ian16B7Author
      Inspiring
      February 11, 2021

      This comment is a bit a general query, but it sounds like others have also experienced FM to be painfully slow, and that this sluggishness has been a long-standing problem. Have others complained to Adobe about these problems before? I just searched the Adobe bug/feature tracker, and could not find anything related to speed/sluggishness (other than an issue that I just created there - FRMAKER-9669).

       

      The Adobe employee who responded to this post said that they are looking into this issue, but I am wondering why this problem has not been resolved previously. 

      F
      FieryPantone
      Braniac
      February 10, 2021

      More of an observation than an answer, but we don't always have to do everything within a single tool; so turning to a text editor for searching .xml files is not a sign of weakness :-} I quite often use Notepad++ or even gVim to search through a stack of DITA files, then step back into my DITA environment to carry in editing what I've located.

        S
        Community Manager
        Stefan GentzCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        March 30, 2021

        I very much like and agree with this, @FieryPantone. I use Notepad++ quite often as well (and more and more often UltraEdit) for all kinds of simple source code editing or such cross-file find/replace operations that do not require a "WYSIWYG" view and structured content awareness and DITA-Features resolving (like conref processing).

        I see such tools as little helpers that are great for a particular task and are very useful in a complementary way.

        frameexpert
        frameexpert
        Braniac
        February 9, 2021

        As FrameMaker opens topics, it may be trying to resolve conrefs, cross-references, etc. If you go to Structure > DITA > DITA Options, you can turn some of these things off. Also, if your Cross-References pod is visible, this can significantly slow FrameMaker down.

        I
        Ian16B7Author
        Inspiring
        February 10, 2021

        Thank you for the quick response.

        I do not have the Cross-references pod visible.

        I unchecked all 3 of the auto-load On File Open options and re-tested. It still took ~ 150 sec to find that search time, which is ~20x slower than searching with Notepad++. 

         

        I am curious - do you find similar discrepancies between Notepad++ (or any other similar tool) and Framemaker 2020? These search times with FM are so incredibly slow on my system, I am surprised that I could not find anyone else complaining - which makes me wonder if there is something wrong with my installation rather than something wrong with Framemaker (hence I am curious if others also experience very slow search times).

         

         

        A
        Adobe Employee
        Amitojsingh
        Adobe Employee
        February 10, 2021

        This is an area that we do plan to investigate in the upcoming months. Hopefully you could look at a fix for this in an update for the latest release.

        Hope this helps.

         

        Thanks

        Amitoj Singh

         

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