Rational Application Developer
Rational Application Developer (RAD) is an Eclipse-based development environment.
Tuning the workspace
Review the many ways to tune RAD performance: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSRTLW_9.0.0/com.ibm.performance.doc/topics/cperformancetips.html
The configuration changes listed below can be done to improve RAD's performance depending on individual needs. Some of these tips have been integrated to the product into the Workspace performance tuning feature, available by clicking Help > Performance > Workspace performance tuning.
- If you already have some projects in the workspace, published or not into WebSphere Application Server v7.0 to 8.5.5, you could start by using the Workspace performance tuning tool.
- The table in the Performance Tips at the Knowledge Center summarizes the tips, points out the type of improvement and how frequently any of these configuration changes are considered. The table below suggests which configurations might be useful for a few typical conditions you could have in your workspace. This does not mean the tip is exclusive for that condition though.
- Most of these tips can be used also in WDT. Look below the table for a brief description of each task. A special note is done on those that are only for RAD.
| Condition | Tip |
|---|---|
| Many projects and/or files in the workspace | Convert projects to binary form; Closing Projects; Validation; Automatically build and refresh the workspace; Links; Plug-ins activated on startup |
| Workspace is old / has had many changes | Fresh workspaces |
| Limited resources | Do not install features that are not required; Remote test server; Restarting Rational Application Developer; JVM tuning; JVM tuning - shared classes; Capabilities; Reducing memory; Quick Diff; Label decorations |
| Constantly modifying projects published to WAS 7.0 to 8.5.5 traditional profile | Publishing and annotations; Server configuration options; Server Startup Options (Admin Console); Restarting projects |
| General tips | Defragmenting; Antivirus software; Task Manager |
Automatically build and refresh the workspace
When "Build Automatically" is enabled, each time files are saved, a build is triggered, which makes the save operation itself take longer.
"Refresh Automatically" is only useful if constantly working with external editors to modify files in the workspace. If not, this will only spend resources in monitoring for changes caused by external processes.
RAD: Make sure that "Build Automatically" and "Refresh Automatically" options are disabled in Window > Preferences > General > Workspace.
WDT: "Build Automatically" exists in the same wizard, but there are two options instead of "Refresh Automatically": "Refresh using native hooks or polling" and "Refresh on access" (http://help.eclipse.org/kepler/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/tasks/tasks-52.htm?cp=0_3_3_8). "Refresh on access" gets activated only when a file is opened. Make sure to have at least "Build Automatically" and "Refresh using native hooks or polling" disabled.
Convert projects to binary form
If a workspace is large and has a lot of projects that are not frequently updated, convert those to binary form. This will reduce memory footprint and speed up development tasks: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/07/0619_karasiuk_sholl/
Capabilities
By disabling capabilities, you can prevent invoking an unneeded function and save time and memory resources by not having a plugin you don't need loaded. You can enable/disable capabilities at Window > Preferences > General > Capabilities.
Closing Projects
Any projects in the workspace that are not being modified or needed as dependencies of other projects should be deleted or closed. While they remain open, time and memory are consumed in constantly building and validating their source code.
To close it: right click the project and select Close Project.
Defragmenting
Defragmenting helps with the startup of the product, and also with some I/O intensive, like build and validation. Only available in Windows.
Do not install features that are not required
This will reduce memory footprint and also save time that could be consumed during activation of plugins.
Plug-ins activated on startup
There are plug-ins in RAD that need to always be activated on startup in order to enable some functions. One of these plug-ins is the IBM Common Migration UI, which, when migrating resources into the workspace, detects and suggest changes to those projects if needed. If you have already performed the migration and are working with a large workspace, you can opt to disable the IBM Common Migration UI by clearing its option in Window > Preferences > General > Startup and Shutdown
Fresh workspaces
In some cases, where a workspace is old, the workspace metadata can accumulate and impact performance. Creating a new workspace can help with this, but is important to note that if you've set preferences in your workspace, you will need to set them again on the new workspace. You may also export the preferences and import them into the new workspace.
JVM tuning
The location of the JVM tuning parameters is the eclipse.ini file in the installation directory.
RAD Comes tuned for what's been considered the average workspace.
JVM tuning - shared classes
Can improve product's startup time. Note: Only applies to IBM JVM. RAD on the MAC ships the Oracle JVM.
Label decorations
Label Decorations allow additional information to be displayed in an
item's label and icon. Disabling all or some decorations can have a
little improvement in performance.
http://help.eclipse.org/kepler/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/reference/ref-decorations.htm?cp=0_4_1_33
Links (The Link Indexer)
The Link Indexer monitors hyperlinks. It can be disabled by clearing Supply link results to Java search in Window > Preferences > Web > Links. Or you can just exclude some resources from indexing. Some activities like link refactoring depend on this function to work appropriately. As a possible rule of thumb: if there's a lot of hyperlinks in the workspace and you won't be refactoring, you can disable this.
Publishing and annotations
RAD: This task can also be done automatically using the Workspace performance tuning tool.
For Web 2.5 applications that do not contain annotations, you can reduce the time to publish by setting the metadata-complete property on the WebContent/WEB-INF/web.xml file to true.
If a project contains annotations, you can use the directives com.ibm.ws.amm.scan.context.filter.archives and com.ibm.ws.amm.scan.context.filter.packages to prevent the server to scan certain JAR files or packages (http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSAW57_8.5.5/com.ibm.websphere.nd.multiplatform.doc/ae/xrun_jvm.html).
Quick Diff
You can get a small performance improvement by disabling Quick Diff: Window > Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors > Quick Diff. Quick Diff displays a marker on the editor indicating changes done since last file save.
Remote test server
You can run the test server on the second system to free up resources on your development machine.
Reference: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSRTLW_9.0.0/com.ibm.servertools.doc/topics/twcrtins_v6.html for how to create a server and http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSHR6W_8.5.5/com.ibm.websphere.wdt.doc/topics/tremote_start.htm for how to enable a server to be started remotely.
Restarting projects
Server configuration options
Server Startup Options (Admin Console)
To improve server startup performance, ensure that the Run in development mode and Parallel start are selected. Also remove applications that are not required from the installed applications list. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSRTLW_9.0.0/com.ibm.performance.doc/topics/cserverstartupadmin.html
Reducing memory
RAD only: Click Help > Performance > Reduce Memory
Restarting Rational Application Developer
As with other applications, some memory can be freed up by restarting it, but some considerations should be taken if the workspace is really large:
- Consider disabling automatic builds.
- Suspend all validators.
- Consider disabling link indexer.
Validation
You can reduce the build time by disabling some or all validators at Window > Preferences > Validation. When disabling a validator, error messages, warnings are not shown. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSRTLW_9.0.0/com.ibm.performance.doc/topics/cprefvalidation.html
Workspace performance tuning
The Workspace performance tuning tool implements a series of tasks that examine the workspace and make recommendations for changes (or in some cases, do the actual changes) to have a better performance.