Optimizing application performance

The performance of your USoft application can be optimized by complying to the following (general) rules:

•For optimum performance, applications should be run from flat files in the production environment. Use the Binder to make sure that the "-ddfile" option and the application name are specified on the command line that starts the application.

•Minimize network traffic.

•Run your application with the RDBMS's SQL trace facility enabled, or use USoft BenchMark's Profiler. From the resulting statistics, and after discussing the application's performance with end-users, determine which SQL statements take the most time to process, or are considered the most "irritating". Concentrate your tuning efforts on these statements.

•Define additional indexes on columns that are frequently used. Consider defining an additional index on frequently-used foreign keys, on columns frequently used in constraints or popular queries, and on combinations of columns that are often queried if the remainder of the table consists of many other columns, or of columns that are rarely queried.

•Optimize the performance of your database server. If you use a PC as application server, put the flat files on a RAM disk. (Refer to your Windows manual for details.)

•On your PCs (both clients and servers), minimize the use of conventional memory.

•If certain windows are used regularly and others hardly ever, runtime users can have USoft Developer cache these windows at startup. Although this will slow down the startup process, it will drastically increase performance when the application is up and running.