MadCap Software Forums

I think I've verified that enabling the substring search capability in Flare causes the creation of the search database to take MUCH longer, causing the project BUILD process to take many times longer than the same project with substring search disabled.


Assuming we want to keep the benefits of substring search (ability to search on 3-character and 4-character (etc.) strings embedded within longer character strings, what can be done to minimize the severe increase in Build time?

As mentioned elsewhere, my main project went from 18-to-20 minutes for a Build to roughly 3 hours.
We shaved off almost an hour of that, by removing a bunch of very-long strings from the content.
But that still leaves each Build taking 2 hours where it formerly took 18 minutes.

Suggestions?
Please don't suggest disabling substring search.

Hello kevinmcl.

Personally I do not use partial word search, so I cannot say whether or not the performance degradation is "normal". At face value, it would seem logical that the build process would take longer, because the resulting search database would contain more entries.

I have some suggestions, listed in no particular order. I'm assuming your target is HTML5

- Use a workstation/computer that has robust memory and processing power.

- Experiment with other related options and observe the effect. For example, select "Exclude Non-Words" from Search. Also, choose to Chunk Large Database Files and try different values as the maximum chunk size.

- Choose when to build very judiciously. For example, automate the build to occur off-hours where the 2-3 hours it takes is rendered moot.

- "Clean" (MadCap generic procedure) the project prior to each build

- Contact MadCap Tech Support and hear/read what they indicate

Good luck