asked on October 6, 2021
Good day,
We currently use JSON datasources only , and receive updates through atmosphere and call the update method in flexmonster.
If we switch to use the Data Server, does the Data Server support real time? Is this something I have to provide?
Is dataserver includded with the licesnse? We have unlimited, and sass for different products
⋅ October 6, 2021
Hello, Fernando,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
Flexmonster Data Server needs to fetch the data from your data source and preprocess it before accepting the client's requests. You can configure the Data Server to update the data automatically with a minimum interval of one minute. Please note that fetching and preprocessing the data also requires some time that depends on the dataset size.
The described approach with JSON is preferable if real-time data updates are required.
Concerning licensing, please note that the Data Server is covered with a Flexmonster license.
Could you please clarify what makes you consider other data sources but JSON in your project? This information could help us to find the best approach for your case.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Illia
⋅ October 6, 2021
Thank you for your answer.
Here is a bit more around the interest in data server.
Why looking into Data Server:
Currently our we have some times reports with over 100k records, and a number of columns. Some of these are results of user triggered processes which in the end generate different data sources.
Loading all the json payloads with hundreds of thousands records can be a bit slow and consume a large amount of memory when 3-5 grids are loading that data.
On Real Time:
We have some datasets that feed NEAR-REALTIME we have monitors looking for updates to a dataset, so after we load data to a flexmonster we turn on the monitor and we update with the changes. Flexmonster flashes the upgrades on the screen.
If the data server updates every minute, will it stream the changes to the flexmonster so the user can spot changes?
⋅ October 7, 2021
Hello, Fernando,
Thank you for providing the details.
You have mentioned that in your case, users themselves trigger generating some data sources. Flexmosnter Data Server requires all the indexes to be predefined in advance. It means that the end-user will need to choose from predefined indexes rather than adding new indexes or changing existing ones.
Concerning real-time updates, please note that the Data Server also requires some time to fetch and process all the updated indexes before accepting clients' requests. This process may exceed the specified interval (one minute), which leads to a longer updating process. For example, if you want to update the index each minute and the updating process takes two minutes, the user will be able to update the data once every three minutes.
The Data Server does not notify clients when the data source is updated; therefore updating process will need to be implemented manually or at the user's request.
Considering all of the above, we suggest checking out our custom data source API protocol. The Data Server also uses this protocol to communicate with Flexmonster. However, instead of using Flexmosnter Data Server, we suggest developing your own server that would implement this protocol.
This would allow implementing all the custom logic specific to your application (real-time updates, "dynamic" queries from users, updates monitoring, etc.) and improve performance since all the calculations are performed on the server side, and Flexmonster loads only the required part of the data for the report.
Please note that major performance improvement is only valid for pivot forms (compact/classic). Let us know if the flat form is used in your application.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Illia
