Hi,
We have found a performance issue which I strongly believe is at the client end. This is not cloud-server or network related....it seems to be platform/browser related.
On most small projects (less than approx 30 tasks), performance is normal and quite reasonable.
However, on larger projects (e.g. 100 tasks), the browser (chrome or firefox) intermittently and significantly freezes when scrolling up and down, even after the initial list of tasks has finished loading.
Once the list of tasks has loaded, and the user starts scrolling down the page, the freezing starts to occur. It freezes and unfreezes several times for 1 to 2 minutes (depending on how many lines there are). Whilst the freezing is occurring, you often hear the computer's CPU fan increase in speed as it is trying to cool the CPU. Looking at task manager, you can see increased CPU usage, steadily increasing RAM usage and high disk IO usage. Sometimes the Windows spinning blue circle appears whilst it is frozen.
After the initial period of 1 to 2 minutes, the CPU fan quietens down, RAM stops increasing (although it has increased by 500-600MB during the freezing period) and performance returns to normal whilst you remain viewing that project. The issue recoccurs when you move to a different project.
This issue is separate to the initial page load performance, which also takes longer with larger projects (greater than 50 tasks). Whilst users would obviously prefer if the initial page load was quicker, they can sort of understand the initial wait. However once the page loads and they start scrolling, the freezing issue really creates the frustration. While it is freezing it makes it very difficult to edit tasks and do normal work.
It seems like there is something in the Workfront code which is causing the browser to work really hard - even after the initial task list has loaded.
Note that my Chrome and Firefox browsers are both up-to-date. My PC runs Windows 10, Core i7 processor, 8GB RAM and has a SSD so hardware performance isn't an issue. The freezing issue occurs across other users/devices in our organisation.
The larger the project, the worse this issue is.
Does anyone else have experience with this issue?
I have submitted it to Workfront support who said their developers are investigating but no fix has been identified yet.
Regards, David.
