Quicksilver very slow for Web search (Custom)

[cinemanna]

From the time I added custom web search, Quicksilver is slow. Normal funtctions are fine. But custom search takes a long time appear.

For example i have added a custom search for online bookstore flipkart.com and it has to come with the letters flip.

I have to wait a long time after typing flip for the Web search icon to appear.

The same slowness is seen for two other custom searches.

The response from typing ( the invoking letters) to the Web search icon appearance takes a lot of time-- the rest is snappy. It opens the browser with the search quickly and properly.

I have made corresponding web search the default action also (priority one).. Why is there such a delay?

The builtin google search icon appears fast. No such problem there.

I like the feature and dont want to disbale the catalog for custom search. Its really useful.

[pjrobertson]

Hi there,

This is a known problem with Search objects. They have to load the website
icon (e.g. Google's icon as you said) which can take some time if your
internet connection is slow, or if there is no icon.

We are working on making this process happen in the background so it
doesn't slow down your Quicksilver usage.

@HenningJ - I've been meaning to ask you. Would you know how we could make
the loading of this icon asynchronous like you've done for the rest?

The methods are in QSResourceManage.m called:

- (NSImage *)buildWebSearchIconForURL:(NSString *)urlString {
and - (NSImage *)getFavIcon:(NSString *)urlString {

Thanks

On 16 January 2012 07:22, cinemanna <
reply@reply.github.com

wrote:

From the time I added custom web search, Quicksilver is slow. Normal
funtctions are fine. But custom search takes a long time appear.

For example i have added a custom search for online bookstore flipkart.comand it has to come with the letters flip.

I have to wait a long time after typing flip for the Web search icon to
appear.

The same slowness is seen for two other custom searches.

The response from typing ( the invoking letters) to the Web search icon
appearance takes a lot of time-- the rest is snappy. It opens the browser
with the search quickly and properly.

I have made corresponding web search the default action also (priority
one).. Why is there such a delay?

The builtin google search icon appears fast. No such problem there.

I like the feature and dont want to disbale the catalog for custom search.
Its really useful.

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#637

[HenningJ]

I'm sure it's possible, even though I haven't looked at it yet.

I'm not that familiar with the internals of the websearch stuff, so I have a question: Are the icons loaded every time I call up on of the searches? That seems quite wasteful. Shouldn't that just happen once (when the websearch is added to the catalog) and then be stored somehow? Then any delays would already be tucked away in the catalog-rescan task. That seems more like the right thing to do.

[skurfer]

I noticed this, too. It also introduces a delay when a web search comes up as you’re typing (but is not the eventual match you were going for).

I was going to look into it, but hadn’t figured out how to reproduce it consistently. I never noticed this with B61, but the plug-in hasn’t changed and it seems like that has to be the cause.

[HenningJ]

Just for reference: The mailinglist thread discussing this issue

[cinemanna]

Thank you Patrick for the clarification.
Just to make it clearer- my internet connection is fast, so there must be
the other issue.

Really happy with QS... I came back to it in its new Lion avatar and the
experience has been good overall.
All I can say is keep up the great work and we are very thankful!

Will be looking forward to this improvement...

Best regards
Maz Kamran.

On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 1:47 PM, Patrick Robertson <
reply@reply.github.com

wrote:

Hi there,

This is a known problem with Search objects. They have to load the website
icon (e.g. Google's icon as you said) which can take some time if your
internet connection is slow, or if there is no icon.

We are working on making this process happen in the background so it
doesn't slow down your Quicksilver usage.

@HenningJ - I've been meaning to ask you. Would you know how we could make
the loading of this icon asynchronous like you've done for the rest?

The methods are in QSResourceManage.m called:

- (NSImage *)buildWebSearchIconForURL:(NSString *)urlString {
and - (NSImage *)getFavIcon:(NSString *)urlString {

Thanks

On 16 January 2012 07:22, cinemanna <
reply@reply.github.com

wrote:

From the time I added custom web search, Quicksilver is slow. Normal
funtctions are fine. But custom search takes a long time appear.

For example i have added a custom search for online bookstore
flipkart.comand it has to come with the letters flip.

I have to wait a long time after typing flip for the Web search icon to
appear.

The same slowness is seen for two other custom searches.

The response from typing ( the invoking letters) to the Web search icon
appearance takes a lot of time-- the rest is snappy. It opens the browser
with the search quickly and properly.

I have made corresponding web search the default action also (priority
one).. Why is there such a delay?

The builtin google search icon appears fast. No such problem there.

I like the feature and dont want to disbale the catalog for custom
search.
Its really useful.

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#637

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#637 (comment)

[cinemanna]

@HenningJ agree... the icons should be called just once and then cached. A simple generic search icon would be good enough too.. more important is the functionality.

[HenningJ]

@pjrobertson btw. can't we just use a really short timeout for that icon request? So it would work for that icons that are available from the service, but timed out quickly, when no icon was available?

[pjrobertson]

I just looked into this today. To clarify a few things:

The icons are retained and cached, so they do only need to get loaded once.

I also can't reproduce the hang now, which is annoying.

[cinemanna]

I was testing to be sure. And here is my experience:
Well, it seems to still take inordinately long at times(mostly). At other times I have seen it snappier. But then it erratically goes back to the delayed-loadingitime.

To compare with Google search-- that icon always loads up snappily. Even when the custom icons loading hangs. Always snappy.

How can one ensure custom searches also behave uinformly well... I'm afraid still something not quite there..Or is it just me?