WebDirect Problems after FMS13v2 Update (1 Comment)

Issue report by Frederick Dimarco

Product

FileMaker Server

Version

FMS13v2

Operating system version

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Description of the issue

I installed the server update yesterday and our WebDirect project became almost instantly inoperable.

When only three users attempted to access the file via browsers, the connections became impossibly slow. On the server, I noticed that doing anything on the desktop was almost impossible. Via Task Manager, I noticed the fmscwpc.exe process had spiked the CPU usage to 100% and even after breaking the browser connections, I couldn't get that process to let go. I forced quit it and the computer began to work again. Reboot, repeat -- same thing several times.

I spun up a clean Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (on Amazon Web Services), installed only FMS13 and the updater and began to work on the FMServer_Sample file via web direct. All these problems recurred -- with only a handful of users connecting via Web Direct, we saw "Communication Error" warnings, broken connections, frozen pages, and (on the server) the fmscwpc.exe spiking. We also noticed that the sample file was generally rendering slowly or incorrectly -- on the first page, graphics on the layout that displayed in the v1 of server do not display, for instance. And some of the tabbing and data entry problems seem aggravated rather than improved. The closest I have to a clue is script triggers -- we were on layouts with OnLayoutEnter triggers when things seemed to blow up. Even though on one layout, all the trigger did was "Show All Records."

Repeated all of the above only when I installed FMS13, I used the full 13.0.2.295 installer downloaded from my Tech Net account. Again, same problems. I then installed the solution we've been developing for Web Direct and noticed additional issues with many of the layout items, but all seemed related to some kind of script trigger -- for instance, the script triggers we had on popovers to manage the v1 issues with portals were very unstable. The popovers freeze, the data in the portal rows either doesn't load or takes unreasonably long to load, and closing the popovers would freeze the browser window and we would have to close the browser to continue.

Steps to reproduce the problem

Described above: we repeated the problems on new Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 builds in the FMServer_Sample file. Our solution, which was workable on the same configurations using FMS13v1 even with some problems (certificate, tabbing, email) in Web Direct. But in v2, our solution is not working.

Configuration information

I want to reemphasize that our servers are configured to be as generic as possible. Our test users are using client connections via updated iPads running GO, supported versions of Chrome (Win and Mac), IE (Win), and Safari (Mac), and FM Advanced 13.02 or 13.03.

There are no network problems at our two testing sites or between them and the Amazon cloud services.

Workaround

We are going to continue our development in FMS13v1. It is the Devil We Know.