Upgrade to Flare 11.0.1 subversion & performance issues

[fhunter]

Morning everyone,

I'd really appreciate help from anyone out there.....

I was recently prompted to update from Flare 11.0.0 to 11.0.1, which I did. Since then, when Flare is open everything runs incredibly slow to the point that is has caused other applications (Word and Excel) to hang and/or crash. It has also become impossible to enter text into the Flare project as it is so slow to respond to mouse clicks and key strokes. In other words it's unusable and has caused major disruption to our deadlines.

I can't find anything running in the background that shouldn't be running but everything keeps grinding to a halt, very frustrating. My PC is brand new, runs on Windows 8.1 and we have been having similar problems with another PC on which Flare 11 is installed but the most recent update has brought productivity to a halt.

I contacted MadCap technical support and got the following suggestions and I'm waiting for further advice:

1. Close Flare.
2. Browse to the folder with your Flare project using Windows Explorer
3. Delete the Analyzer and Output folder(or move the Output folder to a different location if you do not want to lose any previously built outputs) Browse into your Project folder and delete the "Users" folder inside

1. Navigate to C:\Users\[Your User]\Appdata\Roaming\MadCap Software\Flare
2. Select and delete the CatapultMDIEditor folder

Please also try performing a repair of all the instances of Microsoft .NET Framework on your machine by following the steps below:
1. Open Windows Control Panel
2. Programs and Features
3. Search for Microsoft .NET Framework
4. Right-click the item > Uninstall/Change > repair

I did all of the suggested fixes but it hasn't made any difference to the performance of Flare.

In addition to this we are now having issues with committing changes to subversion (v1.6.11) on our network. When changes are committed, Flare goes through the normal process, the progress window appears and everything seems to be ok until I refresh the Pending Changes list and everything reappears. We have checked and double checked the file paths and servers to see if there is an issue from our end but can't find or think of anything else. It appears that we can get source control running again through using Tortoise v1.8 but I'd much rather keep the control of this within Flare rather than having to use a separate piece of software to commit changes etc. However, without being able to work in the project anyway due to performance issues, the source control is somewhat of a moot point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nita Beck]

I feel your pain. I've had similar issues with Flare 11's performance specifically about Subversion and I've complained loudly to MadCap.

That said, I found that performance is somewhat improved if I make sure NOT to use the Pending Check-ins window (the one that one opens with the Pending Check-ins button on the Source Control toolbar). (This is too bad, as I'd like to have that window open by default as part of my saved layout.) My hunch, which seems to be confirmed, is that at least part of the problem is with that window. I've also found that sometimes, even if I got only a handful of files in a modified state and I try to Commit All, Flare spends a HUGE amount of time populating the Check-in (or is now Commit All?) window. Sometimes it does eventually show me that list of those handful of files and sometimes it doesn't. I often end up bailing and then committing each file individually, which is a pain in the behind.

Oh, one more thing. I'm not sure what you mean by "subversion (v1.6.11) on our network." My understanding is that it doesn't matter what the rev is of your SVN SERVER. But it is important that all SVN CLIENTS on a given machine (so that means, for example, Flare and TortoiseSVN) should comply with the same rev of the SVN database. Flare 11 complies with the SVN database version 1.8.x. So if you've got TortoiseSVN installed too, make sure it as at 1.8.x, too. (Sorry, I skimmed your post too quickly; I see you are at TortoiseSVN 1.8.)

[fhunter]

Hi Nita,

Thank you very much for the info, I do have a habit of keeping the Pending Changes window open, so I'll try that and see how I get on, I really hope it's that simple. Also, I'll check our version of subversion etc to make sure we're all on the same versions. I think I'll stick with Tortoise for now for manual checking in of changes etc just to be on the safe side. There's word of moving the Flare projects onto Perforce to match what the Developers are using, so that should be interesting....I'm hoping it won't open a new can of worms. I'll update later. Thanks again

[Olin]

We are experiencing issues with Flare 11.1.0 and
TortoiseSVN 1.8.12, Build 26645 - 64 Bit , 2015/08/02 15:51:39
Subversion 1.8.14, -release
apr 1.5.2
apr-util 1.5.4
serf 1.3.8
OpenSSL 1.0.2d 9 Jul 2015
zlib 1.2.8

The issue usually starts after inserting an image, which sometimes takes over 30 seconds, then an additional minute before we can start typing anything.
We are also occasionally experiencing an issue where it literally takes 45 seconds to 1 minute to type a single letter.
I love Flare, but this makes it really difficult to get any work done.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

[Nita Beck]

Yes, although I haven't isolated it as being related to images. Flare 11 frequently becomes unresponsive and I too sometimes wait *minutes* after simply deleting a character by pressing the Delete key. Drives me up the wall. I've reported this issue to MadCap many times and am told they can't reproduce it. I then tell them that there are many of us on the forums experiencing this. I have nothing to offer you but empathy. Well, maybe this one workaround. If you are able to work disconnected from your network for a bit, do that. I do this: While connected, I'll start up the project so that I can grab the latest updates from my co-authors. I'll then immediately close Flare. Then I disconnect from the network, restart Flare, and re-open the project. Flare at this point isn't looking for the repo, so I can edit away. Later, when I'm ready to check stuff in, I will close Flare, reconnect, re-launch Flare and the project, and then check in my changes. A huge disadvantage to this, besides that it's a PITA, is that one of my co-authors might have also changed a file that I had changed while disconnected. Then we'll get conflicts, but Flare is pretty good about helping to resolve the conflicts, so it's only a minor annoyance.

Honestly, I think those other Flare+SVN users who don't use Flare's SVN features but instead use TortoiseSVN for all their SVN actions might be on to something...

[kkelleher]

It's probably wishful thinking, but I'm beginning to suspect that a number of these Flare+Source-control-hanging issues may all be traced back to the same root. I don't have the 'bad performance' issue, but I'm realizing that once Flare goes sideways, I immediately kill it rather than trying to interact with it. I keep my Windows Task Viewer open so I can watch Flare take over my CPU, and then assume it's not going to recover.

I said in a different thread it's hard to say whether your problem is related to the svn+Flare-hanging issue I'm experiencing, but you can look in your Windows Event Viewer and see if there are any interesting errors around the time that Flare hung.

3. Delete the Analyzer and Output folder(or move the Output folder to a different location if you do not want to lose any previously built outputs) Browse into your Project folder and delete the "Users" folder inside

This could be sheer superstition on my part, but please try also deleting the FileSync folder (backup first!). I tried this a few times today when Flare acted up, and have had good luck getting my projects to open smoothly. If others can reproduce my results, we can provide that info to MadCap so they can figure it out.

In the meantime, I'm not fiddling with my Windows User Profile.

Thanks,

Kristen

[MattyQ]

3. Delete the Analyzer and Output folder(or move the Output folder to a different location if you do not want to lose any previously built outputs) Browse into your Project folder and delete the "Users" folder inside

This could be sheer superstition on my part, but please try also deleting the FileSync folder (backup first!). I tried this a few times today when Flare acted up, and have had good luck getting my projects to open smoothly. If others can reproduce my results, we can provide that info to MadCap so they can figure it out.

It sounds like we've run into similar performance issues with TFS, as well. I've found the FileSync folder can definitely be a culprit, as well as the other folders mentioned, so I'd second Kristen's suggestion. Additionally, we never use the Pending Changes window because of numerous issues with performance and inconsistency. (Though, I recognize that's not a privilege everyone has with their source control software.) Pending Changes aside, we do use the rest of the Source Control interface in Flare, with the exception of doing any version conflict resolution (merging changes and whatnot), since it causes the check-ins to fail, file by file.

Mostly just wanted to chip-in that I think these performance issues exist with TFS, also.

[fhunter]

As a few people have commented on this thread I thought I'd better put in an update.

With regards to using svn with Flare 11, we ditched this source control and went with Tortoise which works a treat. We ran in to some issues later on with syncing errors but we resolved this by not submitting the output and analyzer folders. In our case this isn't a problem fur us as our output is built overnight automatically on the server therefore isn't required to be updated by individual users every time changes are submitted.

Although still sluggish at times, we also found that simply closing the Pending Changes windows improved things immensely. (Thank you Nita).

[Christian Wagner]

Hello all,
I'm having the same issue: When using the Flare-integrated SVN feature, Flare freezes each time there is "communication" regarding the SVN (check for differences/mark as "edited"/undoing changes/...)
Funny When editing, Flare works fine - as long as I do not save the changes. --> Flare freezes for some time
I'm having the "pending changes" window closed, so this has no influence here.

btw: These problems do not occur when using the SVN "outside" Flare (checking out/in with Flare closed; not using the built in Source Control feature in Flare). Everything regarding the SVN is set up well and properly in the Company (software production) I'm working.

[fhunter]

Hi Christian,

I see you've been having similar issues to me. To be honest I ditched the Flare source control interface completely and only ever push to source control out with Flare as it works perfectly, so no reason for me to return to the Flare interface. Sorry I can't be of any more help.