I have a problem and need help!

[KidsBeeHappy]

One of the websites is split between Wordpress and ASP.net storefront. The reason for the ASP.net storefront being that the shopping cart integrates with a whole load of back office systems, and however desireable to move over to a different solution, currently not possible.

My problem, is that on the first load, the move between the worpress pages at the front end and the asp.net storefront pages on the e-commerce end is very slow. Typically, on a good day, around 5 seconds, on a bad day 20 seconds.

And I say good and bad days, because it tends to fluctuate. And I don't know why.

Is there a tool that I can use that shows the steps that the website is going through loading and transferring pages?

Could it be something like the style sheets where WP handles it easily, but Storefront struggles?

Could it be something in the server settings?

Either way, I need to get it resolved and am at present at a bit of a loss as to where to start.

All help much appreciated.

Many thanks
Sandra

ps. website is www.parcelsplease.co.uk (http://www.parcelsplease.co.uk) and the delays occure when you submit data on the green quick quote page and press submit, this takes you from WP to asp.net

[DotNetWebs]

Try this:

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Regards

Dotty

[DotNetWebs]

ps is that the only way you use asp.net storefront or do you have a 'frontpage' as well?

Regards

Dotty

[KidsBeeHappy]

There is a front page, in the sense that all of the booking forms, publically facing, and backwardsly working are ASPDN.

[C.Pearse]

If you use Firefox you can install the Live HTTP Headers (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3829) add-on to see what's being loaded.

Cheers
Chris

[DotNetWebs]

There is a front page, in the sense that all of the booking forms, publically facing, and backwardsly working are ASPDN.

Yes but what I am thinking is that if you don't have a publicly facing .aspx page your application might be 'timing out' on the server and will have to 'wake up' again on the first [form submission] request.

It's probably best to speak to your host as there are ways around this.

Regards

Dotty

[KidsBeeHappy]

I think the issue is that the quick quote form on the WP is collecting data, passing it through to an ASPDN page for processing, and then presenting the customer with a further ASPDN page within the e-comm section (price page). So there is quite a lot happening from when the customer presses the submit button on the WP page, and getting presented with the price on in the e-comm section.

Have no idea how to resolve it though.....

[DotNetWebs]

The reason I made my last point (which you appear to have dismissed) is that you said "My problem, is that on the first load"

This is a known issue with asp.net:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=asp.net+first+load&meta=&aq=f&oq=

As I said, if you have a publicly facing front page this is often not a problem as search engine spiders etc. are often enough to keep the application 'alive'

In your situation the asp.net application is only going to be called when someone submits the form. If this is relatively infrequent it may not be enough to keep the application 'alive'

Regards

Dotty

[KidsBeeHappy]

Not dismissed, just getting to grips with it. My personal problem is that I don't understand enough techy stuff.

The publically available front page is not visible when the website loads from google. And it isn't available on the submission of data, the publically available webpages of ASPDN appear only after the calculation has taken place on a second page behind the scenes.

So, if i'm understanding right, the server is timed out when the home page loads, because there is nothing in the home page load that "wakes" the server, its then asked to perform a calculation before presenting a public facing front page.

Whereas, if I go through the long booking form, which calls up the public facing aspdn webpage, and the customer enters the data directly onto this, and then ask it to perform the calculation, it all works a lot faster because the server is "woken" by that click through that calls up the aspdn booking form page?

[Subbynet]

Gave it a quick go, and seems to be working fine for me. Quick and responsive.

Is there any time frames which you've found this happening? Maybe something is set to run on the server at a set time (like backups) which is effecting performance.

[DotNetWebs]

I have just had another look at this and am convinced you are suffering from the classic ASP.NET "keep alive" problem I mentioned.

When I first hit this page it took a while to load:

http://www.parcelsplease.co.uk/order/ParcelsPleasePage01.aspx

BUT once you have done that you have restarted the asp.net worker process so when you go to use that form it WILL seem quick.

When you use the quick form on the front page, if the application has timed out, the process will restart when you submit the form and you will notice the delay.

I believe your application is timing out because the application requests (people filling the form in) are not frequent enough to keep the process alive.

A quick Google found this recent blog post:

http://www.rexmorgan.net/journal/fixing_aspnet_ldquokeep

If you have a dedicated server you can easily make changes to IIS as described in the first link:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/838318/how-to-keep-asp-net-assemblies-in-appdomain-alive/838348#838348

On shared hosting it will be a bit more difficult and you will have to use one of the coding methods such as the one in in the rexmorgan link.

Regards

Dotty

[roni]

Try this:

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Regards

Dotty
yes, the link will definitely help u.......!