Performance Log in Database Table

[This is preliminary documentation and is subject to change.]

Note
Performance logging to database table is implemented in TOPICA version 4.21 and newer.

This topic contains the following sections.

Configuration
Setup
Performance Log data
User interface
Warning

Configuration

Performance logging to database table may be turned on/off by .config-file parameters:

Key

Valid values

Default value

Description

PerformanceLog.Database.Enabled

true / false

true

Specifies whether performance data should be logged to the database.

PerformanceLog.Database.ServerTiming.Enabled

true / false

true

Specifies whether server-side timing data should be logged to the database.

PerformanceLog.Database.ServerAndClientTiming.Enabled

true / false

false

Specifies whether client-side timing data should be logged to the database.

Caution

Turning client-side timing on affects performance in a noticeable way (performance may drop by around 30%).

Turn this option on only for short period of times (when debugging server-side timing issues). Do NOT leave this option on for extended periods - especially not in production environments!

PerformanceLog.Frameset

true / false

false

Turns performance measuring for rendering of frameset pages on/off.

Frameset pages do not perform any action other that displaying frames - so it will seldom make sense to turn this on.

Setup

As mentioned in performance logging it is the responsibility of the application developer to make any "custom" webforms inherit from CSC.SC.TOPICA4.TOPICA4Web.TopicaBasePage.

In addition to this, to enable client-side logging, a webform must reference the javascript file ~/JavaScript/PerformanceLog.js. This may be done in several ways

The following shows how to include the file via an ASP Script Manager.

Performance Log Javascript Script Manager

The script file can also be included via a normal script tag.

Performance Log data

Performance Log data stored in the database in the table dbo.PerformanceLog. The table has the following columns.

The Database table for Performance Logging data.

Column	Description
Id	Unique identifier for each performance logging.
TimestampStart	Timestamp indicating the start time of the performance measurement.
TimestampEnd	Timestamp indicating the end time of the performance measurement.
ServerTimeMilliSeconds	Time in milliseconds that was used on the server.
ClientTimeMilliSeconds	Time in milliseconds that was used to download resources and rendering the page in the user's browser.
TotalMilliSeconds	Total time in milliseconds it takes to process request on both the server and in the user's browser.
NumberOfQueries	The number of Select Queries that was made for the request.
NumberOfExecute	The number of Executes Queries that was made for the request.
EmployeeUserId	Id of the user, in this case a user of type Employee, who was logged in while performance data was logged.
PatientUserId	Id of the user, in this case a user of type Patient, who was logged in while performance data was logged.
IsPostBack	Indicates whether a Request is a postback.
ScriptName	Specifies the name of aspx page that had its performance logged.
UrlQuery	Indicates the QueryString parameters that was in the URL as request was processed.
DynamicForm	If the aspx page being requested is a dynamic form, this column will contain the name of the form. This is because all dynamic forms are generated from the same aspx page.

User interface

Because performance data is written to a database table as structured information, it is searchable. The TOPICA framework contains a user interface that makes searching possible.

This user interface may currently be found in this way:

From main menu, select "Tools / Frameworks tools".
Select "Log / PerformanceLog / PerformanceLogSearch.aspx".

Warning

Important
When performance logging is turned on for a long time, and the application has many users, the database table dbo.PerformanceLog will grow to contain MANY records. The table dbo.PerformanceLog is currently not indexed to allow fast queries. As a consequence, when the number of records in dbo.PerformanceLog reaches millions, queries may take excessively long time - making the search user interface useless. Therefore, make sure that the table does not grow too big.

Important

When performance logging is turned on for a long time, and the application has many users, the database table dbo.PerformanceLog will grow to contain MANY records.

The table dbo.PerformanceLog is currently not indexed to allow fast queries. As a consequence, when the number of records in dbo.PerformanceLog reaches millions, queries may take excessively long time - making the search user interface useless.

Therefore, make sure that the table does not grow too big.

TOPICA versions 4.27 and newer contains scripts to delete records from dbo.PerformanceLog. These scripts are found close to the above mentioned user interface for searching.

Delete records older than 180 days.
Delete records older than 30 days.
TRUNCATE table dbo.PerformanceLog (delete ALL records). When the table has grown too big, even deleting older that x days will take too long time to execute. In this case, using TRUNCATE is the only usable option.

Tip
Set up a scheduled task to delete records older than xx days, and make this script run once every 24 hours (e.g. at night). This will prevent the table from growing too large.