Massive increase in size of workflow on conversion to analytical app

Hi,

I have a workflow the size of the workflow is 709kb however, on converting it to an analytical app the workflow size increases to 261MB, slowing down the entire process.

has anyone faced this issue? what am i doing wrong

i have tried to resave the workflow as well but everytime i do it the same thing happens. any help would be really appreciated

Common Use Cases

Best Practices

Apps

Accepted answers

All comments

MarqueeCrew

@olimpio ,

I've done (shot myself) this before by using an IMAGE for the app/macro that is big. The other cause is if you are storing data in TEXT INPUT tools.

Do either of these causes resonate with you?

Cheers,

Mark

olimpio

Hi, im not using an image or a text input. Its a workflow that has multiple queries embedded within, I tried the workflow is just 709kb and it just increases to 250k + MB once i save it as an app really strange

danilang

hi @olimpio

Are you adding any interface tools, when you save it as an app? Could these interface tools be storing cached versions of their inputs in the XML?

We had the file size increase happen as well with a case where we generate a dataset as xml before passing it as an input to a stored proc in a Dynamic Input tool. While developing the workflow we were using a small sample xml and the file size was around 70K. When doing functional testing we ran with an input dataset that generated a 100MB xml file. When we saved the workflow, we found that the entire xml was saved in the MetaInfo node of the Dynamic Input tool. If we run the workflow with the sample xml and then save it, the size decreases back to 70KB.

Have a look at the raw xml of the workflow as an app and see if you can find a very large chunk of text stored in the MetaInfo Node of one of the tools

Dan

olimpio

Hey Dan, thanks for the detailed explanation

I did review the workflow in Notepad++

Few points i would like to mention:

I did find the metainfo, its the output from the dynamic input that seems large if i am reading it correctly. the only this is the worflow is set up to run as follows:

1. Input could be 1 account or 1000 or more and the output could be large between 1000 - over 1m may be.

2. I tried using a smaller input of just 10 accounts but its still the same

danilang

@olimpio

The metainfo isn't used when the workflow is run other than to validate field types and sizes. It has no impact on data that passes through the workflow when it's actually running.

What you need to do is run the workflow with an input that generates the smallest possible .yxwz file size and save the workflow after running with that input. From then on run the workflow using this .yxwz file.

If you're still developing, make sure that the last run you do before saving your final copy of the workflow is performed with the small input file.

Dan

olimpio

Hey Dan,

What i just realized is, the workflow i.e. the yxwz file.

If I click on the run button instead of the magic wand that is when the same thing i.e. increase in the size from a 700kb to a 200MB file occurs, is that the same issue of the meta data info or is this a different issue

danilang

When you run the workflow, opposed to using the wand, the extra MetaInfo gets placed in the workflow itself by Designer. if you don't save the workflow after that, the workflow won't increase in size. When you run using the wand, the data passes through the workflow, but the metainfo inside the workflow doesn't change, so you don't get the file size increase

Dan

olimpio

Currently the app is already created and there some changes to be made to the workflow.

1. If i make the change and use the wand to run the workflow the new change does not reflect eg: newly added select tool

2. If i run the workflow using the run button the new changes are working but i cannot save it as the size is going to increase

any thoughts or workaround for this

Quick Links

This months top contributors

atcodedog05 19598

Qiu 15878

binu_acs 15708

MarqueeCrew 13708

apathetichell 13703