Performance Tuning for Content Manager

136 Performance Tuning for Content Manager

does the work of rendering the image in the applet and therefore requires

sufficient resources to meet the response time expectations.

There is a cost for this configuration. The applet must be downloaded from the

eClient Web application server to the browser every time the browser is shut

down and restarted to access a resource object that requires the applet. The

applet is nearly 400 KB. This could add more network traffic than it saves for a

large number of infrequent users.

5.7.5 Network and Library Server

Most API calls interact with the Library Server database. Every time there is an

interaction, there are network delays and additional workload on the database.

We should avoid these as much as possible. To avoid calls to the Library Server

database, assemble all parts to an item before adding it and conversely only get

from the Library Server (or the Resource Manager) the data your application

needs. If you are building a collection of child components, links, or parts,

assemble the collection in the client application and add them all at once

wherever possible.

5.8 Client applications

The Content Manager clients vary between particular Content Manager

applications styles and even between functions within any one system. Content

Manager provides sample applications that demonstrate many functions that are

available in a Content Manager system. The sample applications can also help

developers in the use of the APIs and creating custom Content Manager clients.

The Windows client and the eClient, which provide production-ready application

clients for Content Manager, are generalized applications that have a wide range

of capabilities and applications. They are designed for maximum flexibility and

assume very little about the setup of the Library Server to which they will connect.

They do not take any short cuts or assume the existence of the components that

might be required for any one particular implementation. As a consequence, they

might not be a fast or efficient as a custom-built application client. A custom client

application can take advantage of a predefined data model and make

assumptions about the data that have been enforced elsewhere in the application.

For example, the system designer knows that folders are created only when they

contain a document and documents cannot be deleted, so the application can

assume that there will be a document contained by that folder and jump straight

to it. The generic, out-of-box clients cannot make this assumption, because it

might not be true in other customer situations. These clients must determine