Recently viewed items Performance issue/bug.

Today I want to share with you one of the Microsoft's Dynamics CRM issues that causes a serious performance issue.

RECENTLY VIEWED XML

If you are suffering from bad performance while the CRM form opens, I suggest you to check your RecentlyViewedXml, you might be surprised.

RecentlyViewedXml is an attribute of the UserEntityUISettings Entity. It describes which items are most recently viewed per entity. This data helps the CRM show us the recently viewed records under the "Recently viewed items" button on the navigation bar.

PROBLEM

The problem is that the RecentlyViewedXml saves almost all the history, so the xml's can take up dozens, or even hundreds of MB! And this data is coming from the server every time you open the form!

DIAGNOSIS

First, to check what's the status of your system is, run this query:

SELECT MAX(LEN(U.RecentlyViewedXml)), U.OwnerIdName

FROM UserEntityUISettings U

GROUP BY U.OwnerIdName

HAVING  MAX(LEN(U.RecentlyViewedXml)) > 200000

ORDER BY MAX(LEN(U.RecentlyViewedXml)) DESC

The query returns the max length of the RecentlyViewedXml for each user only for big records (according to Microsoft consultant – 200,000 chars is the limit). If the query returns results, then:

" Houston, We've Got a Problem!"

SOLUTION

We wrote a Console Application that runs once a week and handles the UserEntityUISettings table.

This console keep's the latest x items and removes the others, but, we don't touch the pinned items. What are the pinned items? These are the items the user pinned – to keep always on the top:

And finally we update the RecentlyViewedXml field.

CODE

1. Retrieve all UserEntityUISettings records of active users that contains RecentlyViewedXml:

var userEntityUISettings =

   (from u in contectService.UserEntityUISettingsSet

    join s in contectService.SystemUserSet on u.OwnerId.Id equals s.SystemUserId

    where s.IsDisabled == false

    where u.RecentlyViewedXml != null

    select new UserEntityUISettings

    {

        UserEntityUISettingsId = u.UserEntityUISettingsId,

        RecentlyViewedXml = u.RecentlyViewedXml

    }).ToList();

2. Parse the xml and leave only X last viewed items (we declared 20):

foreach(var userSettings in userEntityUISettings) 

{

   var recentlyXml = XElement.Parse(userSettings.RecentlyViewedXml);

   var recentlyItems = recentlyXml.Descendants("RecentlyViewedItem").ToList();


   //number of pinned recently viewed items

   var pinnedCount = recentlyItems.Where(x => x.Element("PinStatus").Value == "true").Count();



   //Unpinned recently viewed items

   var unPinned = recentlyItems

       .Where(x => x.Element("PinStatus").Value == "false")

       .Select(x => x)

       .OrderByDescending(x => DateTime.Parse(x.Element("LastAccessed").Value, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))

       .ToList();



   if (pinnedCount + unPinned.Count >= maxItems) {

       //Remove all recently viewed items except last 'maxItems' items

       unPinned.Skip(maxItems - pinnedCount).ToList().ForEach(x => x.Remove());

       userSettings.RecentlyViewedXml = recentlyXml.ToString();

       contectService.DeleteObject(userSettings);

       contectService.UpdateObject(userSettings);

   }

}

contectService.SaveChanges();

localStorage:

After you run this console, you will be surprised to see that the recently Viewed items are still there!

Why? Because of the localStorage. What is the localStorage? The localStorage is a browser property that allows to save key/value pairs in a web browser. It stores data with no expiration date. The data will not be deleted when the browser is closed, and will be available the next day, week, or year!

Clear localStorage:

You have a several of options:

1.     Clear from the Developer Tools console: Press F12, select "Console" and run: "localStorage.clear()".

2.    Open "Delete Browsing History" (Ctrl + Shift + Delete):

Make sure "Cookies and website data" is selected and Press "Delete".

SUMMARY

Microsoft is aware to this problem, but until they will fix that, this is my solution.

Thanks,

Ziv Ben-Or

[email protected]

+972545882011