Am I right? Response time / speed for the user - which method is faster (and why?)

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I am trying to make my app run faster and faster - and I think this is right (but I need to be corrected if wrong!)

  • usc (user sensitive columns) - basic values only BUT I think they live on the device so no need for Glide to go to the server to get them… so very speedy (yes?)
  • computed columns (is there a difference between being in a Glide table or GS?) - speedy as also work on the device (right?)
  • writing data to and from Glide Table - much faster than GS, slower than on-device as the data needs a trip to and from the server
  • writing to Google Sheets - you might get lucky and it is only a bit slow… or you are unlucky and the GS sheet updates with another 5-10 seconds before Glide recognizes the change and pushes the change to the device

To show you what I mean:

  • I need to collect the user’s address
  • with the location component - writing a value to a Glide Table or usc column is very fast (GS slower)
  • with a Map component to display the GPS - scarily good fast too on the device (faster when going to Glide Table I think than GS-housed data)
  • I have a Google Script in GS to do a reverse geocode (pull in an address from the long/lat) and separates the values into columns (address line 1, etc)
    ----- this is quick, around 1.5 sec on the GS side to process the GPS coordinate and pull back the result
  • to push the result back to the user then takes between 5 and 15 seconds (I show a ‘wait spinner’ so the user knows something is happening - visibility based on something like ‘Address Line 1 is empty’ so it vanishes once that data is seen by Glide)

One of the big things I am trying to know conclusively — are USC columns faster than any other columns, even Glide Tables? If so, then I would put all my ‘basic’ data into usc things, and only copy across data in a batch at the end of my process (or when it is needed).

Thanks!

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User SPECIFIC!!! grrr :stuck_out_tongue:
I know I’m being pedantic, but it’s important, because the (correct) name pretty much tells you everything you need to know about them. And that is, when you have a User Specific column, the data that each user sees in that column is specific to that user only. Another way to put it is that each user has their own personal version of the value in that column.

Computed columns only live in Glide, and all computations take place on each users device. Glide computed columns will always be faster than spreadsheet formulas in terms of end user experience.

That question doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. A User Specific Column is a component of a Glide Table. So asking if a USC is faster than a Glide Table is like asking if a windscreen wiper is faster than a car :stuck_out_tongue:

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ok… I can get mildly dyslexic with words at times (I believed it was Convent Garden for a decade…)

what I take away is that … they are the same speed (stored and processed on the device, no need to go to the server)

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Yes, the USCs are faster than any other way to get an updated value from GS or GT.

USCs and computed columns live on user device.

At the beginning , when Glide didn’t have this feature we had to use another trick and it was
difficult to get simple things. In these days it was like the Wild West! :wink:

are USC columns faster than any other columns, even Glide Tables?

I think Mark means the speed/performance to have a fast result writing/reading to/from a GS or even GT. And the answer is YES, no doubt.

In UX terms, the USCs are the best option but they don’t have data persistente so, their data will be different if you use different devices (data is not saved on server nor GS/GT).

Saludos y feliz día

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hmm, does that mean that User Specific Columns only store their values locally on the user device, and don’t sync back to the Glide servers?

I’d been wondering about that…

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ah! you now get my question!
… but they must sync back to the Glide Server or else we would not see them in our designer, surely…

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But that’s the point - you don’t see them in the builder (in real life). The times that you do, that’s just because you’re pretending to be that user, and changes you make are local to your device. ie. your computer

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Right!

Well, if your APP is using Public + email authentication, that data is saved on Glide server (you will have the same on all devices) but if it’s Public 100%, as soon as you refresh APP o quit, you will see everything zero or blank.

Try to use some Calc APP and you will see what happens!

Bye Darren!

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Ah, that makes sense

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OK, so my app is public with email authentication, and so if I log in from different devices, the usc values are there across devices, which means that, for the user, the values are not only stored on the device BUT on the Glide servers as well. Which means that usc values ARE stored on the Glide server, and not just locally.

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Yes, and I just confirmed that with a very simple test…

  • Previewed an app in the builder as myself
  • Set the value of a USC
  • Logged into the same app as myself from a mobile device
  • Set the same USC to a different value
  • Observed the change a few seconds later in the builder

I’m glad we got that one sorted out :joy:

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yes, I was already aware that USC values are not persistent if you aren’t signing in. But that’s a different scenario to the same user signing in from different devices. Anyway, I think we’re all in agreement on this one :slight_smile:

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Darren and Mark

Take a look at my Calc APP using old method when USCs were not available.

The results are shown very fast, so fast as any USC but here we had to use a Form and later GS columns.

It was the Wild West as I told you all! :rofl:

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