I'm attempting to use Web FM with a very large directory of files (close to 20,000 files), and Web FM is extremely slow in this case (sometimes taking 3+ minutes to show anything, or even crashing the browser). I'm guessing this is because the entire specified directory is read when you initially come to Web FM? Can you point me to a way to make it read a specific directory on a click-by-click basis?

Comments

robmilne’s picture

robmilne commented

I'm not surprised. Putting 20000 files into one folder will definitely bring the server/client to its knees. I'd suggest not putting too many files in the root directory so that the initial load of WebFM is quick. The 'click-by-click' basis you refer to is the way the system already works. There is a cache to speed up browsing (the initial directory load is always slow) but it is not fully implemented by which I mean to say that it indiscriminately flushes itself on ANY file operation. If and when I get around to improving the cache, it will only flush the directories affected by the file op.

I've never tested WebFM with quite this number of files so I'm very interested in how your browser handles the amounts of memory required for the directory caching. Keep me posted please.

ratlhead’s picture

ratlhead commented

Sorry, I should have been more specific. The 20,000+ files or so are spread throughout a directory structure below the root. The initial root folder is actually only about 15 directories in size, so that's why I had assumed you were reading everything from the root and down and not on a click-by-click basis.

Browser behavior hasn't been very good, but I'll definitely keep ya posted.

Lityi’s picture

Lityi commented

I experience the same on a 5.1 system :(

I have got lots of files in a lots of directories. Unfortunately I had to uninstall this module, but I find it marvellous!!4

robmilne’s picture

robmilne commented

Its important for me to know the limitations of my system so that I can make improvements. Can you describe how it was breaking? What was the slowest process of the interface? What did not function at all?

-rob

tcblack’s picture

tcblack commented

I have between 700 and 500 files (the number is decreasing as I re-arrange files) in my incoming FTP directory.
Clicking the left block in order to navigate to that directory results in a very long (several minutes) wait before the system shows the number of files.
You mention RAM I have 2 gigs on my local machine, with plenty free. And I'm using Firefox, though IE doesn't seem to be any different.

So it is very slow with 500 files in one directory.

robmilne’s picture

robmilne commented

Thanks for the feedback. I can improve the speed by decreasing the amount of data transfered but there isn't much I can do if the client-server comms are themselves slow or if the server is underpowered. Case in point: The 4.7 demo site (http://webfm.web.ca/admin/webfm) displays the "html" directory many times faster that the 5.1 demo site (http://vera-ikona.com/admin/webfm). The 4.7 site is located on a very fast server at a top-notch co-lo whereas the 5.1 site is at my personal 1&1 site which always performs poorly.

The blame for poor performance is most likely with the server.

tcblack’s picture

tcblack commented

Ah well that explains things a bit.
Thanks for the feedback on this.

Now that I have my directory down to about 300 items or so it responds in roughly 30 seconds. It doesn't seem to be a problem if your subdirectories have a high number of items so That might be a "hint" item for people struggling with speed issues.

robmilne’s picture

robmilne commented
Status: Active » Postponed
nhck’s picture

nhck commented
Status: Postponed » Closed (won't fix)

As per #803722: Cease support of Drupal 5? support for D4 and D5 has been closed. Sorry, please upgrade to Drupal 6.