Database search freezes GUI

English mAirList 5.x
1

Our mAirList database is located on a separate linux sever, running postgresql 9.1, I have tested in both mAirList 5.0.2 (2565) and 5.1.2 (2774)

When a Database Search is run, the GUI freezes until the first results are returned. Our library is large, so results can take many seconds to complete (especially when doing a search of all attributes) combined with network congestion the GUI has been reported to lock indefinitely. I can confirm that if a database search times out (for example if I unplug the network after making the request) the screen just completely locks up, a dialog ‘The application seems to be frozen’ pops up, which has no effect and the process has to be manually killed. The audio engine itself doesn’t lock, so playout is not interrupted, but this isn’t much good when playout is in Assist mode and a song is ending.

I have had several notifications about this being an issue by our studio staff.
Is there any way to do make database queries asynchronous?

Thanks,
Patrick
4ZZZ

2

This has also happened to me today. I thought it was due to a sound card problem I had on Saturday, which I cured.

3

Unfortunately it is not possible to move the search process entirely into a background thread.

Most of the time, the problem occurs when people only enter one or two characters, yielding too many search results.

You can edit the GUI.ini file and add the following lines to define a minimum length for the search term, e.g. 3 characters:

[DatabaseSearch]
MinChars=3
4

thanks for the Workaround with the GUI.ini. I would appreciate a timeout. Unlikely this is not possibe with SQL Statements. Is it possible for you to modify the search string inside mairlist kernel, like Statement_Timeout=20000?

5

We are having the same problem with a search taking around 20 seconds (with crossed fingers that it will all come back to real time before the track ends).

I think it is worse if the search includes ‘common’ words like ‘the’. Would this be the case?

I note what you say about making sure that that there are at least 3 characters. Is it better with longer search strings? Or search for an obscure words and avoiding common ones like ‘the’?

Ron.