Flare 9 and Subversion = Slower?

[chunkee]

Is anyone else that has upgraded to the Flare 9 update and using Subversion notice a lag on the checkin/checkouts?

I have verified that Flare 8 is much faster at handling the source control.

John C

[Geoff Davies]

Absolutely correct.

How much slower depends on the size of your project. For our largest project with over 13,000 topics, it takes approximately 70 seconds to check-out a single topic. There is a similarly long wait for check-ins.

I confirmed that this is a Flare issue rather and not a Subversion one by editing a topic file outside Flare (using Notepad) and then using the TortoiseSVN Commit operation. This took just over 5 seconds.

The changes to Subversion integration in Flare 9 affected our documentation productivity so badly that we have had to revert to using Flare 8.

[RamonS]

Please report this as a bug. If anything, SVN speeds should be the same and ideally faster. I find 5 seconds for a check in to be too much to begin with. It is time for Git support in Flare...

[chunkee]

Please report this as a bug. If anything, SVN speeds should be the same and ideally faster. I find 5 seconds for a check in to be too much to begin with. It is time for Git support in Flare...

I sent it in. I hope they get this fixed pronto. Good lord. Waiting 70 seconds to check out a topic is nuts.

[CatVancouver]

I am having some issues with Subversion and Flare 9, too. I think (?) that I've fixed them by going outside of Flare and using Windows Explorer to commit new changes to our archive.
It is also slower, which is a pain. Flare 8.1 was quick and the best for working with Subversion so far.

[BaritoneJP]

not using subversion but we have found too that VSS is slower ...

... I submitted a bug but I haven't gained any ground on why (I'm hopping it isn't b/c of my bronze level support )

[CatVancouver]

And now I'm having something more serious going on - I can't "Insert" anything - images or hyperlinks into files in either Flare 8 or Flare 9.
I've logged this as a bug, too, and have sent a picture. I too have bronze maintenance.
Sometimes SVN problems sort themselves out - but this is pretty scary. I'm wondering if running both Flare 8.1 and Flare 9 on the same projects has confused source control?

[RamonS]

Bug report is not the same as a support request. If you need immediate help contact support.

[chunkee]

I have logged it as a bug. I have tried the removal of the Analyzer and Source Control folder. It took forever to retrieve that latest version check and the topic check in/out process is still the same.

This DOES NOT OCCUR IN FLARE 8, only FLARE 9. My connection to Subversion is fine.

John C

[CatVancouver]

Hi all - I sent in a support request and did get a very quick answer to my problems (Thanks Lori O. whom I have quoted below.)
I had 2 problems in the project - 1 which I haven't accessed since November.
1. COULDN'T INSERT ANYTHING
Somehow, I'd put items under source control that shouldn't have been. Analyzer and the Userids shouldn't have been under svn. And mine normally aren't - but I slipped up somewhere, probably doing an update and commit outside of Flare in Explorer.
So, the project was keeping 'recentlinks.xml' and other xml files it shouldn't have under Project/userid. Again, those files shouldn't be under svn control.
Fix for the ‘Recentlinks.xml’ problem that caused me to be unable to insert anything:

1) Close Flare
2) Browse to the folder with your Flare project using Windows Explorer
3) Delete the Analyzer
4) Browse into the Project folder, and then your userid folder. Delete all the XML files you see listed in this folder including recentlinks.xml
If they are under svn, do an svn delete (which says 'ignore'), then do a regular delete. F5 to refresh.
5) Re-open Flare and your project
This fixed my 'insert' issue

2. MOVING FROM FLARE 8 to FLARE 9:
If your project is bound to SVN, please note that there was a change to how Flare integrates with SVN from Flare 8 to Flare 9. Flare 9 no longer uses a Source control cache database that Flare 8 used to use. Flare 9 maintains a direct connection with the Source control server. When switching from Flare 9 to Flare 8 for the same project, please delete the Sourcecontrol folder for the project before opening it up in Flare 8. Then allow Flare 8 to rebuild the source control cache for the project.
The key is to make sure that Flare rebuilds the source control cache before you open the project in Flare 8. It should prompt you to rebuild (mine did) the next time you open this project.
So if I switch TO Flare 9 for something, I don't have to do anything. But if I switch BACK to Flare 8 from 9, I need to delete the Sourcecontrol folder before opening it in Flare 8.

As I am experimenting with Flare 9 - and there are some boolean conditional tag capabilities that I really want to use, I'll be doing my experimenting in the 'Example' project I have, not in 1 of the main ones.

[chunkee]

I have deleted the SVN, the Analyzer and the Source Control folder. I see very little improvement in speed when checking out a topic. It still runs down the list of Content files and then checks out the topic.

JC