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cedricj425261
Known Participant
Mar 24, 2021 10:11 AM UTC
Question

What is the most efficient between IF and showWhen=False ?

Hi,

My question is maybe a little naive but for increasing performance I was asking myself if use the showWhen attribute on 10 components is as good using an IF condition to masking all these components.

I took 3 examples :

1/ Case showWhen on all components :

ColumnsLayout(
    columnLayout
        TextField_1label: "1", showWhen: false)
    columnLayout(
        TextField_2(label: "2", showWhen: false)

    ...

    columnLayout(
         TextField_10(label: "10", showWhen: false)
)

2/ Case showWhen on layout component :

ColumnsLayout(
    columnLayout
        TextField_1(label: "1")

    columnLayout(
        TextField_2(label: "2")
    ...

    columnLayout(
        TextField_10(label: "10")
    ),
    showWhen : false
)

3/ Case with an IF condition :

local!value: false,
if(local!value,
   ColumnsLayout(
      columnLayout
          TextField_1(label: "1")

      columnLayout(
          TextField_2(label: "2")
      ...

      columnLayout(
          TextField_10(label: "10")
     )
  ),
  {}
)

Is the 3/ more efficient as Appian do not need to load anything ?  

6 replies

stefanhelzle0001
stefanhelzle0001
Brainy
Mar 24, 2021 10:37 AM UTC

AFAIK this will not have any significant impact on performance. I try to create readable code. And putting showwhens into a larger number of components is not readable/understandable.

I created by own component which just takes a number of components and a showWhen. It does nothing else then showing/hiding a bunch of components. Works pretty well in cases where I do not want to add any layout or section.

cedricj425261Author
Known Participant
Mar 24, 2021 10:41 AM UTC

so Stefan you confirm, (leaving the readable aspect left aside) that the 1/ and 2/ cases (showwhen) are as much as efficient than the case 3/ (using the IF) ? 

stefanhelzle0001
stefanhelzle0001
Brainy
Mar 24, 2021 10:45 AM UTC

This is what I experienced in the past. Yes.

When doing Performance optimizations, I pick the big candidates first. Most of the time these are issues in DB access or slow web services.

    davel001150
    davel001150
    Inspiring
    Mar 24, 2021 2:23 PM UTC

    Premature optimization is the root of all evil.  I just use showWhen quite extensively.  I did find one case, however, where showWhen didn't behave as I intended, but if condition worked quite well.  I think there can be a difference between when a component and related code is hidden from the user, and when the if returns false so absolutely NONE of the associated code even runs.

    Unless you need to if(), a good example is when the component doesn't have a showWhen, I would use showWhen.  It probably is the tiniest bit better, and certainly more maintainable, or Appian wouldn't have bothered inventing it.

    cedricj425261Author
    Known Participant
    Mar 24, 2021 5:57 PM UTC

    Thanks a lot David for your reply

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