Searching on a large database freezes

Tap Forms – Organizer Database App for Mac, iPhone, and iPad › Forums › Using Tap Forms › Searching on a large database freezes

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  • May 28, 2015 at 7:40 AM #13860

    Shelly Yomano
    Participant

    I have several databases, but one has 20,000 records of my music collection, created from a CSV exported from iTunes. It all works great, except for one problem (which occurs on both my iPad Air and on my iPhone, latest version of Tap Forms).
    The database opens up after only 2-3 seconds of churning. But if I type anything into the Search field at the top, say a single word in the song title I am looking for, the spinner starts. After a few seconds it stops, and I can see that it has found all records that fit my search criterion.
    But the keyboard is still displayed and covers the results. Then I tap on the Search button at the lower right of the keyboard, and the spinner spins and spins without stopping. I’ve let it run for 10 minutes without it stopping. Finally I have to either close the program and reopen it or open a different database and then return to the music database. In either case I have lost my search results and need to start all over.
    Now I realize that this happens in my other, much smaller databases also – which never happened before I created the music database.
    It is curious that it actually finishes the search and displays the correct records before I hit the Search button, but then it spins forever. Is the problem that I am initiating a global search on all databases? Any suggestions on how to fix this?

    May 28, 2015 at 12:57 PM #13866

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Hi Shelly,

    You should get better performance by searching just the one form rather than the entire database.

    You could also try going through all the Database Maintenance tasks on the Tools screen from top to bottom. Start with Vacuum Database and finish up with Rebuild Search Index. Hopefully that’ll speed things up for you.

    Thanks,

    Brendan

    May 28, 2015 at 2:28 PM #13874

    Shelly Yomano
    Participant

    Brendan,

    Thanks for the suggestions. I did the maintenance procedures – vacuuming dropped the database from 1.6GB to 230MB.

    But my basic problem persists.

    I thought that I WAS searching just the single form (sorry if I confused the issue by calling the music form a “database”). I am using the search field within the form and then hitting the search button at the lower right (within the pop-up keyboard) once I have entered the search word. I’m not using the Search icon at the very bottom that searches the entire TapForms database.

    Am I doing something wrong?

    Shelly

    May 28, 2015 at 2:31 PM #13875

    Shelly Yomano
    Participant

    One more thought.

    I created the database via a CSV import. Then I had to change the Lyrics field from text to note. Could that be causing the problem? Perhaps I should change the header of the CSV before I do the import?

    Shelly

    May 28, 2015 at 4:36 PM #13881

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Hi Shelly,

    No, that’s not going to make a difference. Text and Note fields are almost identical with the exception that Note fields can take rich text. So switching back to Text won’t make a difference.

    There should have been some performance improvement by reducing the size of the database file by that much.

    Using the search field within the form is fine. I thought you were doing a global search from the Search tab.

    Have you tried just scrolling to view the records that are automatically fetched rather than dismissing the keyboard with the Search button? Does that help at all?

    May 29, 2015 at 6:40 AM #13883

    Shelly Yomano
    Participant

    Brendan,

    Yes, I can scroll down and view the records that were automatically fetched. And that is exactly what I have been doing.

    But this is a stop-gap, and it is often difficult since only a few records display above the keyboard and I need to sometimes scroll though dozens or even a hundred to find the one I want.

    I am still puzzled by 2 things:
    1. The correct records are “automatically fetched” within a few seconds. So why does the spinner continue to search and never stop spinning?
    2. This troublesome behavior occurs even when I am searching another, very small form. And this never occurred with this smaller form (or any other of my forms) until I added the new large form. So the problem is affecting ALL of my forms, not just the new big one.

    Shelly

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