Using LiveDataset

Edit data and create datasets you can share.

LiveDataset

Performance

LiveDataset Seems Slow

Typically, LiveDataset is very fast. Many responses are almost instantaneous, and most complete within 2 seconds.

Occasionally, it can seem much slower. If it is regularly taking over 10 seconds, it is worth investigating. Let’s look at some potential reasons for the slowness, and ways to identify and address them.

Are Websites Slow?

  • One possible cause is your computer or your internet connection.
  • Using the same browser, check other websites that use a lot of data, e.g. a video on TED. If videos play normally through your browser, then the problem is probably related to LiveDataset.

Is Everything on LiveDataset Slow?

  • Potentially, there could be a widespread problem making LiveDataset slow across the board.
  • Try different datasets and different views. If everything you do seems much slower than normal, please contact us:

Is the Problem Temporary or Ongoing?

  • Potentially, there could be periods where other users are using LiveDataset intensively and making the system slow for everyone.
  • If this is happening often or is becoming annoying, please contact us and we will investigate.

Is One Specific Dataset or View Slow?

Some datasets can be very large. Some of the processing done by LiveDataset can be very intensive. Intensive processing on large datasets is best avoided as it can, inevitably, get slow.

As a rough guide, a dataset can be considered large if it has:

  • Over 500,000 entries
  • Hundreds of columns
  • Text entries equivalent to many pages

TIP We recommend extra care and attention when configuring large datasets. Let us know and we can give you some specific advice.

Try the following, to see if they improve performance:

  • If you are using a quick filter, use a column filter instead. Quick filters are intensive as they search all columns.
  • If you have set your own sorting, turn it off. Setting your own sorting is also intensive. Sorting can also be predefined by the person who configured your view - this will be faster.
  • Can you make the dataset smaller? if there is old data you no longer need, you can archive your dataset using export, then delete unwanted data.

If you have access to design mode, you can try creating a view that is focused on this specific task. This can address most performance issues. Using modify view you can:

Still Slow?

Contact us for help. Please let us know, if the problem is consistently happening with a specific dataset or view.