LDN - Luminis Developer Network

Figured as I had not posted anything for a while I might as well post a status type update. During Luminis Idol it was pointed out that the Group/Course Activity channel I created back in 2005 as popular as it was no longer runs nicely. (For those unfamiliar with the premises behind this channel go here http://www.lumdev.net/node/426).

This was most apparent when Michael was able to demonstrate during Idol:

1. His home tab took forever to load
2. The Group/Course Activity channel died with a nice 'Timed out' error

I have been meaning to revisit this channel for quite some time so this was a nice way to kick me in the rear, thanks Michael!

In reworking this channel I have also been making use of Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform. To give you all an idea we have a faculty member that has a total of 89 groups/courses. Using the old code (found at the above lumdev post) it was taking roughly 70 seconds just to produce the XML that would drive the output of for the channel.

Using TPTP I was able to very quickly pinpoint the specific piece of the code that was consuming the bulk of that time and then began looking into alternative ways to obtain the same result. After enhancing that piece (it was the part that would obtain message board posts) for this same user we have dropped to roughly 13 seconds to produce all the needed XML.

The logic I am using to obtain the message board information I am also going to use for the other sections (file, news, photos, and links).

My hope is to finish off these logic changes this week so that by mid next week I can post a new and improved Group/Course Activity channel.