Flare V4 Analyser

[Adrian Durand]

Hi All,

I know there have been several posts on the Analyzer if Flare V4, and I have found it very helpful so far.

But, is there a way of stopping the scan after a file is deleted? I had another post regarding removing images, and am currently in the process of deleting the images that are no longer used from the Content Explorer in Flare. However, each time I delete an image that is no longer used the Analyzer scan runs and this is increasing the time taken to delete a single image (or view the dependancies on the next image).

Any help appreciated.

Adrian

Edit: Sorry, should have said it is when an image has a Conditional Tag set, not the delete.

[forfear]

i gotta admit the built in Analyzer feature in Flare 4 is really useful. You can find Topics Not in Any Toc and Topics not in index really easily. For most users this is the level of basic reporting they need in day to day stuff.. nice work.

[Skooter]

Here's the body of a BUG I submitted just now - yes a GREAT BIG DIRTY BUG!

""Why oh why does Analyser insist on running every few minutes?
I have a Draft folder in which I keep work in progress topics and images - but whoa betide me if I want to eventually try and move that content to other folders in my project, because every time I try to do it I have to wait for Analyser to do it's checking before I can update the dependencies...!! I then manage to move a few few files - check the dependencies and then it starts up again - two minutes after it just finished!!!
What is it that triggers the analyser to continually keep checking my project? (My auto-save is set to 20 minutes)
DEFINITELY A BUG FROM MY POV"
It's driving me nuts!!:evil:

[NorthEast]

Does Analyzer cause you any real performance problems?
Just in my experience, even on a less speedy PC with a big project open, it just runs in the background and doesn't really slow down my productivity.

I'd say the checking for dependencies part is pretty important, if you don't want a load of broken links.

[Adrian Durand]

Dave,

We are not arguing about the reports it's just the timing of when Analyzer carries out scans.

It's just that it insists on carrying out a scan every time that you update a condition, or delete topics, or rename topics.
All that is wanted is the option to stop the scan running automatically, and for the user to be able to instigate the scan at a convenient point and then view the reports to see if there are any problems.

I've been fortunate enough to have a laptop upgrade recently, so the performance has improved greatly, but there is still a delay when trying to carry out some actions in Flare whilst the analyzer is running, and this is, IMO, not what the system should be doing.

Regards

Adrian

[NorthEast]

Yep, fair enough, it's perhaps a lot more noticeable on a PC with a borderline spec.

It's one of those things, it seems to annoy people if they're not actively using it. If you couldn't see it scanning on the status bar, would it bother folks quite so much and would they really notice the difference?

It'd be nice to have the option to switch it off though, just to see what the real difference is.

[Skooter]

It doesn't slow down my productivity unless I'm trying to move content back and forth between my Draft folder and other project folders - then it becomes unusable. I find it convenient to have a folder with conditioned-out content marked as 'Draft" into which I can drop temporary topics and images (but I'm being thwarted by Analyser) - Just want to be able to turn it off - or at least set the interval at which a scan takes place as with the auto save option). I'm feeling calmer now... nut it's early in the day...

[i-tietz]

It's one of those things, it seems to annoy people if they're not actively using it. If you couldn't see it scanning on the status bar, would it bother folks quite so much and would they really notice the difference?

YES!!
I work with an MS VSS DB in a network, and Flare loses contact to the DB every now and then. When that happens the only thing that helps is closing the project and opening it again.
And on opening the project the scanning-and-checking-orgy starts all over.
My main project has more than 3,000 files so that orgy takes about 5 minutes which are totally lost on all other PC work, because it uses more than 95% of the CPU time ...
THIS REALLY IS GOING ON MY NERVES!

It'd be nice to have the option to switch it off though, just to see what the real difference is.

Well said.
I don't mind useful features as long as I can decide whether to use them and when ...
Already posted it as a bug with V4 ... it's still not changed with V5 ...

[NorthEast]

My main project has more than 3,000 files so that orgy takes about 5 minutes which are totally lost on all other PC work, because it uses more than 95% of the CPU time ...

I also work with a 3000 topic project, and my figures are an awful lot lower. It took 2mins to do the scan (with quite a lot of changed files too), and took up 20-55% of the resources. I opened up some topics when it was scanning, and seemed as responsive as normal. I had plenty of other applications open too in the background. Not much help to you I know, but I'm guessing your experience is all down to PC specs.

[Andrew]

We have a project that is about 7000 topics, and it takes something like 7-10 minutes to scan, and if you are moving files around, it tends to rescan all the time. Every time you want to move a file, you have to wait for it to finish its scan before it will let you see the dependencies. The lesson: don't move files around unless you really, really have to. And submit a feature request to MadCap.

[i-tietz]

Not much help to you I know, but I'm guessing your experience is all down to PC specs.

We are software producers, too.
A feature that swallows PC resources that way is sth we make OPTIONAL, not compulsory. For the very simple reason that not all users have high end or even average hard- and software ... if you want to sell standard software to a lot of people, that's what you have to do.

I don't see where the problem is in changing that feature into one I can switch off or at least configure or trigger manually - it should be a simple if-then-else ...

Another example for sth that should be easy to get rid off: The messages concerning the connection to the VSS DB.
1. On each opening of a project I am asked if I want to get the latest version even if there is no latest version to get. Especially senseless right after I imported a project from Source Control ...
2. On closing a project I am told that I ought to look at the Pending Check Ins - even if there are no files in that list ...

The trigger for those two questions is the same: The project is bound to Source Control! No more criterion necessary but that ... that's also pretty annoying ... and both "features" are available since we starting using Flare (i. e.: V3) - unchanged since then.