How to Optimise the Q-Pulse Client

  Who is this article for?  

  IT personnel responsible for managing Q-Pulse.

 IT access will be required.

Q-Pulse can be optimised to improve your overall system performance. Optimisation can be made on the database, the application server or the client depending on your environment.

This article outlines how to optimise the Q-Pulse client and is split into the following sections:

1. Connect Using the Server IP Address
2. Extend Upload and Download Timeout Values
3. Set Timeout for Record Searches and Increase Performance
4. Increase Page Loading performance
5. Further Reading

Important Note: It is recommended that you backup any files before editing them. If you experience any issues then you can restore the original unedited file.

For version 7.1.5 and above, please encrypt the web.config file first before making changes. 
How to Decrypt and Encrypt Q-Pulse Configuration Files

1. Connect Using the Server IP Address

The Q-Pulse client connects to the application server using the server address contained in the Q-Pulse.exe.config file. This address can come in the form of the server name, the fully qualified domain name or the IP address of the server.  

However, in slower network environments or environments with high traffic the DNS lookup process may increase the time taken for the client to connect. As a result, it is strongly recommended that the IP address is used in the Q-Pulse.exe.config.

The benefits of this change are outlined below:

To update the Q-Pulse.exe.config file:

1. On the client machine, browse to the client installation folder.  This will be:

2. Locate and open Q-Pulse.exe.config with Notepad.
3. Browse for the lines:

<add key="CslaDataPortalUrl" value="ghttp://<servername>/QPulse5/RemotingPortal.rem"></add>

<add key="DataPortalServer" value="ghttp://<servername>/QPulse5/DataPortal.rem"></add>

4. Update the server name to use the server IP address so that these lines will take the form of:

<add key="CslaDataPortalUrl" value="ghttp://<10.0.10.0>/QPulse5/RemotingPortal.rem"></add>

<add key="DataPortalServer" value="ghttp://<10.0.10.0>/QPulse5/DataPortal.rem"></add>

5. Save Q-Pulse.exe.config.

You can then copy this file for use on other client machines.

Are your clients deployed using ClickOnce? Follow the steps at How to Make a Configuration Change to the Q-Pulse Client Using ClickOnce.

2. Extend Upload and Download Timeout Values

The Q-Pulse client includes a default timeout value for uploading and downloading data.  In most environments the default values will be sufficient for normal use. However, some tasks may require additional time to complete (e.g. uploading a large document over a slow network). 

The benefits of this change are outlined below:

Be aware: If the Q-Pulse application server is unavailable, the client will attempt to reach the server for the full duration of the ConnectTimeout and InvocationTimeout period before notifying the user that the server is unavailable. Please ensure a suitable number is entered as the value for each timeout.

To increase the timeouts in the Q-Pulse.exe.config file:

1. On the client machine, browse to the client installation folder.  This will be:

2. Locate and open Q-Pulse.exe.config with Notepad.
3. Browse for the line:

<channel type="Belikov.GenuineChannels.GenuineHttp.GenuineHttpClientChannel, GenuineChannels" ConnectTimeout="10000" InvocationTimeout="12000" HttpUseGlobalProxy="false" Compression="true"></channel>

4. Increase the ConnectTimeout and InvocationTimeout values to100000 and 450000 respectively.  These values are in milliseconds and can be further increased as needed.
5. Save Q-Pulse.exe.config.

You can then copy this file for use on other client machines.

Are your clients deployed using ClickOnce? Follow the steps at How to Make a Configuration Change to the Q-Pulse Client Using ClickOnce.

3. Set Timeout for Record Searches and Increase performance

When searching for records in Q-Pulse it is strongly recommended that the search criteria used is specific to the records you are interested in.  You may encounter issues if you return a list made up of several thousand records.  If you find that your searches are taking a long time to run and are not returning the correct number of records you introduce the paging timeout.

The benefits of this change are outlined below:

Important Note: The records returned will be cached on the application server while the custom filter list is open.  Please ensure that your application server has enough RAM available to cope with longer than normal searches.

To add the paging timeout in the Q-Pulse.exe.config file:

1. On the client machine, browse to the client installation folder.  This will be:

2. Locate and open Q-Pulse.exe.config with Notepad.
3. Browse for the line:

</appSettings>

4. Change this to read:

<add key="PagingTimeoutMins" value="60"></add>
</appSettings>

5. Save Q-Pulse.exe.config.

You can then copy this file for use on other client machines.

Are your clients deployed using ClickOnce? Follow the steps at How to Make a Configuration Change to the Q-Pulse Client Using ClickOnce.

4. Increase Page Loading performance

Further amendments can be made to increase the loading speed of the LazyLoad feature within certain modules. By default the system returns batches of 10 records to the list view on the Windows Client but this can be increased to return more records at a more efficient rate.

Modules which benefit from this amendment:

• Assets
• People
• Training
• Audit
• Supplier
• Customer

To make this change, update the Q-Pulse.exe.config file to include the below appSetting key.

<add key="PageSize" value="250" />

Are your clients deployed using ClickOnce? Follow the steps at How to Make a Configuration Change to the Q-Pulse Client Using ClickOnce.

5. Further Reading

• How to Make a Configuration Change to the Q-Pulse Client Using ClickOnce
• How to Install the Q-Pulse Client Using ClickOnce 
• How to Optimise the Q-Pulse Application Server
• How to Optimise Microsoft SQL Server for Q-Pulse