Does anyone have any ideas or references they could point me to regarding optimizing the viewstate of my ASP .NET application? I don't want to turn it off all together, and the main goal of optimizing it is to speed up performance so I don't want to run an expensive function to recursively disable the viewstate for certain controls because that function would slow down the load time of the page which would defeat the purpose.
Any ideas?
Here are some ideas how you can optimize the size of ViewState transferred over the wire (copied from this answer):
Disable ViewState for controls that do not need it (this is the most effective solution). E.g. if you can cache some data on the server, then you can re-bind any databound controls with every request and it's not needed to save everything in ViewState.
Turn on HTTP compression on the server (IIS). This reduces the size of the page sent to the client, including the ViewState.
Compress the ViewState. This has an additional advantage over HTTP compression: it also reduces the size of PostBacks (data sent back to the server), since the ViewState is always sent back to the server during a PostBack. There are various approaches for this, e.g. as shown in this blog post.
Store the ViewState on the server instead of sending it in a hidden field with the page. The easiest way to do this is to use the SesionPageStatePersister, but there are other solutions which store the ViewState to disk instead of using the Session (see here for example).
There's not a lot I can tell you except "don't put a lot into your ViewState".
Places I'd look for optimizations:
Anything you added to ViewState yourself
Large amounts of data bound to data display controls like GridViews, <x>Lists, and Repeaters.
GridViews are particularly bad about ViewState; everything you databind goes into it, so if you bind a particularly large list expecting ASP.NET to handle pagination of it for you, you're going to have a huge ViewState. The only way to get around this is to only bind one page at a time to the GridView, but that means you'll have to do data-side pagination which can be just as painful, or to turn off ViewState for the GridView, which means (arguably) useful features like in-line editing are no longer available.
There's no silver bullet here.
ViewState is a client side state management and becomes part of your Request and Response packets and heavy viewstate can indeed slow down your application performance. One quick option to optimize ViewState performance is to keep it on the Server side and use it only when it is needed. This makes sense as ViewState is never really used on client browser end and is always needed on Server side when you Post-back. You can use a Distributed caching system such as AppFabric or NCache to store your ViewState on server side and this should help improve performance.
I have personally worked with NCache which has a no code change provider for ViewState caching.
Click here to view the article for ASP.NET View State Caching
Related
I understand the use of View state. Any material that talks about view state, explains the need and use of it. However there is an option provided at every control level/ page level to disable it as well.
In what circumstances we might want to disable the viewstate of a page or control?
From an online material, I read that,
If the page doesn't have any dynamic data, data to be persisted
between round trips we can disable viewstate.
I agree to this statement, but what's the advantage of doing this? What do we get out of it?
Some pages have HUGE viewstates. As such it takes time to send back and forth, its more load on the server, more network traffic, etc. There's no need for it a lot of times, so your apps will be quicker by shrinking your viewstate.
Take note even fully disabling viewstate at times will generate still a small required viewstate because of control requirements, but it can be greatly reduced. I've seen viewstates go into 200kb per page.
You get less payload since the ViewState hidden value gets set to "". In datagrids displaying several thousands of records, the ViewState can become several MB in size
Performance is improved not only because the ViewState is not transferred anymore, but also because reading ViewState is typically an expensive operation since it involves decrypting it and deserializing the value.
Actually, you can improve performance just by disabling the encryption of the ViewState but this is not a good security practice.
As the page has to render the ViewState to the client it can speed up load times if the ViewState is disabled.
Around the time that .Net was introduced I remember trouble shooting a page that was loading slowly, the page was rendering a sizeable grid all of which was been saved into ViewState. Removing the data from the ViewState made a big difference.
ViewState is rendered as a hidden input field in the web page. This makes the page load more slowly, and also makes post backs slower, since the ViewState must be posted along with everything else.
Therefore, your page will perform faster if you disable ViewState. How much faster? Hard to say.
In general, if you don't need ViewState, disable it.
Note also that even if you disable ViewState, there will still be a hidden control with a small amount of data that is neccessary for .NET.
When I display info or error messages to the user as asp:Label or asp:Literal controls, I almost always set EnableViewState to false, because they almost always apply only to a given post-back. Setting EnableViewState to false means I never have to write this in my code-behind:
lblSomethingWentWrong.Text = string.Empty;
This is 10KB in my HTML source:
<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="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/>
This represents ~50% of the entire size of the page.
Why does it do this, why so long? Can I do anything about it? It's bad for mobile users.
What is this view state anyway and how to mitigate its size
In Asp.net WebForms every control saves its state because HTTP protocol is stateless and Asp.net WebForms pages bypass that by saving every control's state in this Base 64 encoded string. This is the only way for Asp.net framework to know whether some control's value has changed or not. But... This automatically means that static controls that don't get POSTed back to server (like label for instance) don't need to save their state. You can always set their EnableViewState="false".
Unfortunately this can't be set without any other code changes on other controls, that do get POSTed back (every server-side control that renders some sort of an input in HTML). This basically means that setting EnableViewState="false" on page level (within #Page directive) will have consequences that are seen as controls loosing their values, controls not firing certain events etc.
So, the more server-side controls you have the larger it will get (without turning it off on certain controls).
But I wouldn't worry if its size is 10k. That will go back and forth rather fast and painless. You will have problems when it gets much larger. I once worked on a project and we had an issue with a certain page (done by less experienced developer) where view state grew over 1MB. Imagine that. What a slowdown!
How to turn it off completely on page level
When you turn view state off on page level you have to be aware that certain controls that were loaded (or better said data bound) in on of your page's events, will have to be reloaded each time your page gets POSTed back at server. Otherwise they will show up as empty when your page gets back to the client.
Your server controls are filling the ViewState with data they will need on postback. If your page does not postback you can just disable the ViewState for the page.
To disable ViewState for the page you can just add EnableViewState="false" to the #Page directive. Please be aware you should only use this as a solution if you are 100% sure the page does not postback.
You also might want to check this MSDN article to get a better idea of what the ViewState does.
Disable viewstate for static controls, like a gridview.
Check out this question for more info:
If you are concerned about the viewstate on the client side, then think about storing it on the server side. Perhaps in a session variable. Take a look at this article as there is statistical comparison given. Download the solution and check out how to store it on the server side.
An Analysis of Keeping ViewState out of the Page
This article explained it neatly to me in the past: Taking a Bite Out of ASP.NET ViewState.
Basically viewstate's on by default and, depending on which controls you use, it can get out of hand pretty fast. Especially data controls like the gridview are responsible for massive injection of viewstate. You can disable that on a per control basis by setting the EnableViewState property to false. Be careful however as taking out viewstate might also take out functionality of the controls. So do it one by one and test test test.
Another way, and likely better for mobile, is to make use of ASP.NET MVC instead which doesn't have to deal with automatic viewstate injection.
How to minimize viewstate size of a page in asp.net?
Please help.
You have several options to reduce the ViewState:
Disable ViewState for controls that do not need it (this is the most effective solution). E.g. if you can cache some data on the server, then you can re-bind any databound controls with every request and it's not needed to save everything in ViewState.
Turn on HTTP compression on the server (IIS). This reduces the size of the page sent to the client, including the ViewState.
Compress the ViewState. This has an additional advantage over HTTP compression: it also reduces the size of PostBacks (data sent back to the server), since the ViewState is always sent back to the server during a PostBack. There are various approaches for this, e.g. as shown in this blog post.
Store the ViewState on the server instead of sending it in a hidden field with the page. The easiest way to do this is to use the SesionPageStatePersister, but there are other solutions which store the ViewState to disk instead of using the Session (see here for example).
Most of the points are highlighted within the other answers. Here's one that might be helpful:
Reduce the number of server controls (e.g. web/html controls) especiall those you do not need. Use simple HTML markups instead.
I've seen too many cases of redundant Table/Row/Cell Web Controls where normal < table >, < tr > and < td > will do.
You cannot minimize the size of the ViewState. It's ASP.NET which serializes/deserializes. Though you could selectively disable ViewState for controls that don't need it.
I chose to save the view state on the server in a database itself and not allow it to be passed in the HTML to the client which bloats the page size. You can extend the HiddenFieldPageStatePersister and work around this. I have written a detailed article around this if you wish ...
http://ashishnangla.com/2011/07/21/reducing-size-of-viewstate-in-asp-net-webforms-by-writing-a-custom-viewstate-provider-pagestatepersister-part-12/
You can turn on compression on the server to minimalize size of data transfered through the network or save viewState to disk and never send it to the client.
protected override PageStatePersister PageStatePersister
{
get
{
return new SessionPageStatePersister(this);
}
}
add the above code in the code behind of the page that generates large viewstate values. This allows storing the viewstate in the session. Only a key for the viewstate should be added now.
I use 'n' number of server controls in my page. Now I am into performance tuning and I've noticed that my ViewState is too large and it makes my page slow.
I know ViewState size can be compressed by Gzip. Any other suggestions for reducing ViewState in asp.net. I don't want to do in IIS because my web application is hosted on a shared server.
Assuming the size of viewstate is the main cause of the 'slowness', I would like to suggestion you tackle it from a more holistic approach.
You have 'n' number of server controls, do you need all 'n' numbers to be server controls and not just plain HTML?
Say you really need all 'n' of them, do all of them need to have viewstate enabled?
Here is one good article (if you haven't already read) which provides more insights:
VIEWSTATE size minimization
EnableViewState = false; should become your friend.
Assuming you currently are using viewstate ONLY where you need you can do the following:
Switch Labels to Literals, especially if you are using them in templates. Labels take much more viewstate.
Try do reduce postbacks. Less postbacks will make you need to use viewstate less as you will not need to reload the entire page. For example use AJAX calls and write out data via client side manipulation.
Use session or caching to store large amounts of data for grids and data heavy controls. With each reload, just fill it yourself.
Viewstates should only be used when you need to remember the state of the page between postbacks. It's used to prevent extra access to the database. So, if this isn't required in your control, use EnableViewState = False. If nothing on your page is going to need a viewstate, you can disable viewstates for that page by adding EnableViewState = False within the Page tag.
If your server can afford it, you may want to transfer data into Sessions. Do this if necessary for security (viewstate should not contain sensitive data), or if your viewstate is holding a large amount of data. Be careful as, by default, Sessions are stored in memory of the server. Therefore, you don't want to use this too much with large data if you're expecting many concurrent users. You can, however, change where the Session is stored (i.e. another server).
Add the following code to the page which generates large viewstate values.
Alternatively, this can be added to master page to eliminate the need of adding on each page. The below code allows the viewstate to be stored in session.
protected override PageStatePersister PageStatePersister
{
get
{
return new SessionPageStatePersister(this);
}
}
The first thing you should do is turn off viewstate wherever you don't need it. Examine the controls and determine which ones absolutely need viewstate turned on.
Exactly the issue that I had. I had to extend the HiddenFieldPageStatePersister and save the viewstate in a database. I have written an entire article that will guide you.
http://ashishnangla.com/2011/07/21/reducing-size-of-viewstate-in-asp-net-webforms-by-writing-a-custom-viewstate-provider-pagestatepersister-part-12/
With user controls on a page, I understand that every control has an impact on memory usage by storing their own state in ViewState. My question is, how much?
For example - I have a feedback form as a control on my masterpage. It is set to Visible="false" by default. A user clicks on a feedback button, and the control becomes visible while it's needed.
What would would be the relative performance impact by having control sitting there on everypage (as it's located in the masterpage), but not visible? The site I'm developing will potentially have large amounts of traffic and I wonder if I'm setting myself up for a headache later on if things become slow.
Thanks
Performance could be impacted on the server and the client. Primarily you want to reduce the amount of HTML including viewstate that is sent to the client. If this sits on every page then you will send this viewstate information more often than you really need to.
I think you should have some logic that ensures that the feedback form control is only added to the feedback page. Rather than use visible="false", put it on it's own page and link to it, or dynamically add the control to the page.
The main benefits will be reduced bandwidth usage, and faster rendering of the page on the client. Secondary benefits include easier debugging and cleaner code rendering to the client.
With all performance problems you should be testing performance and making judgments based on hard data. In this case work out the size of the viewstate on the client, then multiply by number of requests to see the size of bandwidth usage on the server. On the client use a tool like FireBug to understand the overall page size received by the client.
It depends on the control. Datagrid with hundreds rows might generate 100k of viewstate. On the other side, checkbox won't generate too much.
You can just drop your feedback form control on empty aspx page, visit it in the browser and check for __viewstate hidden field. This is how much will you feedback form will add to each page in terms of viewstate. Then you will have to decide if it is acceptable.
I wouldn't htink about such an optimizations right at the start. If it will become slow later on, you can always change the form to be pure html and use ajax or something to post it data to server. As long as it is user control and not copy pasted content it will be easy to optimize