Extremely long file save times

Just a quick background. We have a product that is very large. The Web site is at least 35 GB. We have no other choices but using Dreamweaver in our efforts. The site has grown over the last four years. Our technical writing department has been tasked with fixing the broken links over the entire Web site. The site is broken down into monthly segments. As time went on, these segments grew but they only contained that month's content.

In Dreamweaver, I create a site that contains the whole of one month's content. The content is self-contained and rarely needs to go outside that month's content for links. In one such month, the site is 50 MB in size. I open Dreamweaver, I do the link checking, and I open the file to begin fixing the broken links. The problem I am having comes when I have fixed the link and go to save this one file. It takes at least 15 minutes for the computer and Dreamweaver to recover from the operation. This is not an exaggeration. I timed it. It takes anywhere from 12-15 minutes to save one HTML file. Now, I know it shouldn't take this long. What is causing it to take so long? Is this something I can disable until the end? We don't have a resident Dreamweaver expert here so I am asking for any assistance you can give.

Our computers are running Windows NT on Pentium IV processors with 256 MB RAM. As per the system requirements, this should be plenty to handle the operations I am trying to do. The site is content created by FrameMaker/Webworks and contains very few graphics other than navigation buttons.

Thank you,

M. Walker

M. Walker:

This is not an answer to your question, really, but would it be possible to
double the RAM load on your box? RAM is very cheap now, and 256MB is very
close to a minimum load. It would indeed make an interesting test.

I suppose that the slowness is caused by having to sort through and check
every entry in what must be an elephantine site cache....

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"EDSwriter" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Just a quick background. We have a product that is very large. The Web
site is at least 35 GB. We have no other choices but using Dreamweaver in

our efforts. The site has grown over the last four years. Our technical
writing department has been tasked with fixing the broken links over the
entire Web site. The site is broken down into monthly segments. As time went
on, these segments grew but they only contained that month's content.

In Dreamweaver, I create a site that contains the whole of one month's
content. The content is self-contained and rarely needs to go outside that

month's content for links. In one such month, the site is 50 MB in size. I
open Dreamweaver, I do the link checking, and I open the file to begin
fixing the broken links. The problem I am having comes when I have fixed the
link and go to save this one file. It takes at least 15 minutes for the
computer and Dreamweaver to recover from the operation. This is not an
exaggeration. I timed it. It takes anywhere from 12-15 minutes to save one
HTML file. Now, I know it shouldn't take this long. What is causing it to
take so long? Is this something I can disable until the end? We don't have a
resident Dreamweaver expert here so I am asking for any assistance you can
give.

Our computers are running Windows NT on Pentium IV processors with 256 MB
RAM. As per the system requirements, this should be plenty to handle the

operations I am trying to do. The site is content created by
FrameMaker/Webworks and contains very few graphics other than navigation
buttons.

Thank you,

M. Walker

The Web site is at least 35 GB.

35GB!?!?

Anyways, which 'file' is it that you're having problems with? I assume it is
an HTML file? How large is this one file? And how many links are in this one
file?

-Darrel

I think that it's the enormous site cache that is the issue. I don't think
you can do anything about this.

I imagine a redesign of the site to take advantage of data driven pages
might be a big help....

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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==================
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"EDSwriter" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Yeah, the Web site has grown and grown and well, you get the idea. We
can't do anything about that. Also, each month that passes grows the site

even more.

The file is pretty standard as far as HTML file sizes goes. I'll say it is
no bigger than 500K. As for the number of links the file has, this is

irrelevant because "the issue" happens on files that have 50 links and files
that have 20 links. As an educated guess, I'll add that the file size
doesn't seem to be a determining factor in the amount of time it takes to
save the file either. Hope this helps you help me.

Thanks,

M. Walker

Actually 35GB is the overall site (one that is not defined from within Dreamweaver because DW couldn't handle it) file size but the 'sub-site' (i.e., monthly piece) is only about 50MB. This is the site I am working in now and this is where the save times are so long. Regardless of whether this helps you to give any more insight, thanks for the help.

M. Walker

is only about 50MB.

That's gigantic. Really...a flat-file system using DW probably isn't the
most efficient way to maintain things.

This is the site I am working in now and this is where the save times are
so long.
Regardless of whether this helps you to give any more insight, thanks for
the help.

And are these files on your local computer or on the LAN? If on the LAN,
there are known problems with DW and MM simply states that DW was never
meant to work on files over a LAN.

Othwerwise, I'd do as Murray says and get more RAM. 256 is hardly enough
these days.

-Darrel

One quick test you might consider running is to check that the
application and system are in their normal state by isolating that
particular content. For instance, if you restart the system and make a
new small test site with test documents of the normal size, and if even
these take remarkably long times to save, then we've exculpated that
particular large content and can focus on making sure the app is normal,
or seeing what's going on in that system.

(If normal documents save normally there, then we'd instead be looking
at a content-related difference, which sounds reasonable in this case...
the computer may be checking through all incoming links to test whether
links in other documents need to be changed, for instance.)

jd



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