Network locations, esp SharePoint

benh · Post by **benh** » 2006 May 04, 00:31

I connect to a SharePoint team site Document Library over an https connection. Within Windows Explorer, I have little problem accessing a location such as https://mydomain.com:444/DocumentLib/.

Using x2 Lite, it is very slow, sometimes a message is returned ('cannot make any sense of last input'), etc. I'm sure you're aware of the problems, is there any solution?

Post by **nikos** » 2006 May 04, 07:35

i'm not sure about sharepoint, does it use webdav?
anyway, these are damn slow since m$ hasn't exposed how to read these remote folders properly

to accelerate things, make sure you switch to list view (not details anyway), and sort by Name. You'll have to do that before attempting to access such a folder

benh · Post by **benh** » 2006 May 04, 10:51

Don't know what it uses, but suspect that it's based on web protocols. This article may be useful:
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/Essen ... Archit.asp

What are the problems with Webdav?

I've done both the list view and sort by name, but sadly still very slow.

Post by **nikos** » 2006 May 04, 11:21

so there's no difference in speed whatsoever?
the documented implementation is stoopid since you ask for size & date info and windows fetch the whole file! (hence the delay). But if you don't do anything that requires size/date (what i recommended) it should be faster

benh · Post by **benh** » 2006 May 04, 12:18

Sorry I might have confused you there. Yes there is a big difference in speed doing those things!

However, even with those improvements, if I navigate through a directory, a small dialog box will repeatedly appear saying:
Copying...
Copying https://example.com:444/blah.txt to local computer.

It does this for each folder and file in the directory I think. Some sort of caching?

I can cancel this dialog and that will speed up the process (in the short term perhaps?).

Post by **nikos** » 2006 May 04, 12:43

in this case the problem is the status bar
if you have the default mode that shows size/date for each file selected then implicitly you are asking for the file to be downloaded, hence the delay/popups etc.

you can disable these panes from the advanced options

basically you could have a "layout" that has no status bar and show things in list view and no sort. If you save this (window menu) with a name like "sharepoint" you can quickly switch to it whenever you want to browse such a slow folder (hilite the folder and then pick the layout from Window menu) -- whereas you can keep the normal viewing mode in detail with statusbars etc for all your regular folder browsing

ps what about infotips? are they slow in these folders and do they cause file downloads?

benh · Post by **benh** » 2006 May 04, 12:59

Ahhhhh..... infotips was the issue - nice one :)
I've created a window layout with no infotips, and list view only, and it's much faster. as fast as i wanted in fact. That was the only reason I had left for ever using Windows Explorer.

Does activating a window layout always have to open a new window? Can I have it setup so it works on the active Pane without opening a new window?

If not I think I'll just use dual pane, with two tabs on one of the panes, one or both setup for sharepoint window layouts.

Thanks for your time and help nikos, good onya. You're a bloody diamond :)

Post by **nikos** » 2006 May 04, 13:16

but infotips cannot be turned on/off per tab it affects the whole window, that's why i recommended a separate one

benh · Post by **benh** » 2006 May 04, 23:15

I meant to say the status bar was the problem. I had infotips turned off already.

So without infotips, status bar, and in List view, the folder speed is fine. It's still *slightly* slower than windows explorer, but they have inside knowledge, and it's not enough to worry me.

cheers,
ben