User profile for Dan J Archer

Just a quick update: after looking into these memory issues, we're pretty sure we've traced the problem to the Orthogonal layout. With large graphs (more than a few hundred objects), Orthogonal's memory consumption gets disproportionately vast. Also Orthogonal isn't much use for very large graphs; as can be seen from one of the screenshots on this forum, there's so much connection routing going on and a few pinprick clusters of nodes. So for the final release we're only enabling Orthogonal layout for graphs of 500 objects or less. This is a bit of a workaround, but should avoid anyone suddenly losing a gig of memory for no readily apparent reason. Thanks for the feedback, this one was a good one to track down. Cheers, Dan / comments

Just a quick update: after looking into these memory issues, we're pretty sure we've traced the problem to the Orthogonal layout. With large graphs (more than a few hundred objects), Orthogonal's m...

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Dear PDinCA, Thanks for your feedback, and for giving such detailed object counts. If I understand correctly, your database has ~1643 objects, all of which were on the diagram. If you use SQL Compare, can I ask what the memory usage typically is in that application for the same database? Some of the performance problems you've had will be gone for the final release. The beta has known issues working with a large number of selected objects. This has already been fixed for the final release. Performance wise, the application is intended to perform well with up to 500 objects on the diagram at one time. It has no hard limit, but isn't optimised for thousands of objects on the diagram. If your system can take it, then no problem, but some systems won't be able to. As alphadog mentions, for impact analysis the best approach is to start with a small number of objects and add to the diagram as required, rather than starting with the entire database on the diagram and then remove objects which aren't required. Sadly we have limited time available to work on SQL Dependency Tracker, and as such some features didn't make the cut. Printing was one of those. The primary output envisaged from SQL Dependency Tracker is the diagram, though we do support XML reporting. The diagram is anticipated to be used eg. word processors or presentation applications for illustrations, and so printing wasn't high on our feature list, as those applications already provide it. But with enough demand, a future version of SQL Dependency Tracker may support such features. Also our users are already finding rather cunning solutions of their own (such as pasting into Excel, which seems good at printing large metafiles). I'm afraid there won't be a CTP version of SQL Dependency Tracker. The next version we release will be the 2.0 final release. Thanks and all the best, Dan Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Tracker Project Lead / comments

Dear PDinCA, Thanks for your feedback, and for giving such detailed object counts. If I understand correctly, your database has ~1643 objects, all of which were on the diagram. If you use SQL Compa...

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Hmm, that does make SQL Dependency Tracker look like a bit of a memory hog doesn't it! I'll ask someone to investigate this. No promises as that size of diagram is beyond the intended scope of this release, but that does seem just a tad OTT... Re Excel, yes that one surprised the heck out of me too. Credit to sonrisante for finding that one ( http://www.red-gate.com/messageboard/vi ... php?t=2088 ) As far as a release date goes, you should be seeing the full version of SQL Dependency Tracker before the end of May - sorry I can't be more precise. I'll post a more concrete date as soon as I have one. Cheers, Dan / comments

Hmm, that does make SQL Dependency Tracker look like a bit of a memory hog doesn't it! I'll ask someone to investigate this. No promises as that size of diagram is beyond the intended scope of this...

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Hi Alex, I like the circularlity of that [image] I'm afraid this release won't have a command line or public API a la our toolkit. But your and others' comments in this arena have been duly noted. It's interesting to me how much more people want to do with Dependency Tracker. This is bound to impact our future releases of the product. Cheers, Dan ==================== Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Tracker Project Lead Red Gate Software / comments

Hi Alex, I like the circularlity of that I'm afraid this release won't have a command line or public API a la our toolkit. But your and others' comments in this arena have been duly noted. It's in...

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We did want to add a count of objects in the database and on the diagram - sadly this is one of the small features that hasn't made this release. It's on the list for next time though! All the best, Dan ==================== Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Tracker Project Lead Red Gate Software / comments

We did want to add a count of objects in the database and on the diagram - sadly this is one of the small features that hasn't made this release. It's on the list for next time though! All the best...

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Hi Jon, Thanks for that. That's a serious database. Bugs in the beta aside, I can be honest and say you're working with an order of magnitude more objects at a time than we anticipated. I'd be interested to know how many people have to deal with such large schemas. We may need to try and squeeze in some optimisation to make things a bit more quicker for people in your position. You're quite right, orthogonal is lousy for such a gargantuan number of objects. It's an interesting view for smaller datasets, but we wouldn't recommend it for schemas of the magnitude you've got to deal with. That's probably not going to change for the final release. Perhaps we should make it a bit more obvious that some layouts are a Bad Plan for huge numbers of objects. Sounds like you're looking to analyse and record the impact of a potential change - this is one of the key (if not the key) tasks we're aiming to make easy with SQL Dependency Tracker. Perhaps you'd take a look at my post on this thread, and see what you think: http://www.red-gate.com/messageboard/vi ... php?t=2086 Regards, Dan / comments

Hi Jon, Thanks for that. That's a serious database. Bugs in the beta aside, I can be honest and say you're working with an order of magnitude more objects at a time than we anticipated. I'd be inte...

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Hi Jon, As another work around, in the beta it's possible to avoid this CPU thrashing after having added all objects to your project by clicking one in the Objects on Diagram list first, before you click on the diagram itself. The bug in question manifests when you select or deselect a large number of objects using either the diagram itself or the toolbar buttons. If you do your selection from the Objects on Diagram list (eg. Ctrl-A to select all) then it doesn't show up. As Bart says, this is a dumb bug and, rest assured, this will certainly be fixed for the final release. In our latest test builds it's already gone. Thanks for reporting it tho, and for your patience with the beta! All the best, Dan / comments

Hi Jon, As another work around, in the beta it's possible to avoid this CPU thrashing after having added all objects to your project by clicking one in the Objects on Diagram list first, before you...

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Hi Dan, Thanks for that. I'll make a note, since as and if we added support for column specific dependency tracking, that'd be a good feature to add. All the best, Dan ==================== Dan J Archer SQL Dependency Tracker Project Lead Red Gate Software / comments

Hi Dan, Thanks for that. I'll make a note, since as and if we added support for column specific dependency tracking, that'd be a good feature to add. All the best, Dan ==================== Dan J A...

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Hi alzdba, You're quite right, it's not straightforward in the beta. The best you can do to hide a type in the beta is probably to click the "Type" column in the Objects on Diagram pane to group by type, and then to hide an entire type drag your mouse up or down the visibility column (unchecking the check boxes). Or with focus on the Objects on Diagram pane press Ctrl-A to select all, hit Hide on the toolbar, then do the process above to Show a particular type. In the final release we're aiming to allow you to select by type much more easily, so this should become rather more straightforward! Sorry about the hassle in the meantime. All the best, Dan / comments

Hi alzdba, You're quite right, it's not straightforward in the beta. The best you can do to hide a type in the beta is probably to click the "Type" column in the Objects on Diagram pane to group by...

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Hi Matthew, There is an option to show full names for objects and databases under the View menu, but in the Beta version it isn't fully functional. In the final release this will toggle full names for all panes and the diagram, which hopefully will give you what you need. Thanks, and all the best, Dan / comments

Hi Matthew, There is an option to show full names for objects and databases under the View menu, but in the Beta version it isn't fully functional. In the final release this will toggle full names ...

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