SAP

Browser plays important role for browser based applications. A proper configuration at both server and browser can go a long way in enhancing the application performance over WAN and poor network situations.

Minimize calls to backend servers –

Calls from client to backend server can be minimized by caching the pages (i.e. JS, CSS,  text and other type of files) at client side. This way when the page is opened, browser first checks for it in the local folder rather than making call to server. This improves the browser response time. There are configuration parameters that are required to be set at server side (i.e. Cache control for J2EE HTTP) related to page life by setting up the days for which page remain live.

For enabling client side caching, “Automatically” option should be selected under “Check for newer versions of stored pages” in the Settings dialog box as show below-

Further, it is important to keeping the cached pages intact and allow them to be stored at client side by setting the disk space for the cache to a reasonable value (100 – 250 MB).

However, if web cache is to be kept in disk then there is need to also enable “Advanced cache settings” otherwise entire cache will be erased as soon as the browser is closed. To enable advance cache, following property should be unchecked in Advanced tab:

• Do not save encrypted pages to disk
• Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder when browser is closed

Minimize amount of data to be travelled between Browser and server over the Network-

Even after enabling client side caching, pages will still be pulled from server after they reach their expiry date. Further, data will still travel between client and server. Hence, the next possibility is to compresses the traffic over the network between client and server. Compressed data due to its lower size will need less time to travel over the network and will also significantly reduce network traffic. Again, configuration is required at both client and server side. HTTP settings at server side need to be enabled as “Always compressed” for selected set of file types alongwith MinimumGZipLength.  MinimumGZipLength should not be less than 1024 bytes as it can cause the client to consume more resources when decompressing the compressed content.

Client side caching configuration is set by enabling HTTP1.1 standard known as content-encoding protocol. HTTP1.1 enabled browser indicates to the server that it can accept content-encoding, server then compress the data and transmit it. The browser then decompresses the data from the server, and then renders the page.

Further, in case of JavaScript files on Netweaver server, configuration settings for the  scriptset property should be set as “Optimized”. This will ensure that JavaScript files when sent to browser does not comments and unnecessary spaces and hence will be smaller in size.

Minimize browser side processing to eliminate any delay caused by client side activities (read, write, toolbars and Add-ons)-

Minimize or eliminate any browser side components that slow down page loading. Toolbars/Add-ons are such components. They usually slow down the page loading because they require resources or add more processing overhead. For this “Manage Add-ons” under Tools in IE should be selected to disable the components that are not needed.

Finally, keep your browser up-to-date and add the domain of your application to the white list so that pop-blocker is disabled for the application.  There is a patch published for Internet Explorer 6 that solves slow Web browser performance when browsing pages with JavaScript code.

In the next edition, I will blog about Server related issues for performance.