avo.base.js loads really slow

[manuelmeurer]

My app loads really slow sometimes, and looking at the Chrome dev tools, it turns out that avo.base.js takes ages to load (1.3min in this screenshot)

logo.png and avo_pro.js are also quite slow, but avo.base.js is the main offender.

Now my first thought is: why are these assets loaded without a digest?
I checked my deploy script and it seems they are digested correctly:

Writing avo.base-03e1caa4.js.map
Writing late-registration-aacf5a3a.js.map
Writing late-registration-0ec045b5.js
Writing avo.base-15318b0e.js
Writing avo_manifest-6c2c6e35.js

Any idea why the non-digested versions are loaded?
(why that would take > 1min is another question that I hope to avoid)

[Paul-Bob]

Hi @manuelmeurer

Now my first thought is: why are these assets loaded without a digest?

There's this GitHub issue regarding asset fingerprinting, we'll be experimenting with it in Avo 4. It's expected that the assets aren't fingerprinted on the request.

My app loads really slow sometimes, and looking at the Chrome dev tools, it turns out that avo.base.js takes ages to load (1.3min in this screenshot)

However, the amount of time it takes is unexpected, I haven't encountered this behavior before.

I have a few questions. When does it start taking that long? Is this happening in production? Is the internet connection stable and getting enough bandwidth, could you do some troubleshooting on it?

You mentioned that it's slow sometimes, is it random? Also, how frequent is it, does it happen often or rarely?

[manuelmeurer]

I don't quite understand the issue you linked to. Is it still up-to-date?
The assets are fingerprinted now during deploy, correct?
Why are the non-fingerprinted versions loaded?

My issue is happening in production, everytime the asset is requested and not cached.
I tested it a few times, it takes 45-60sec to load:
https://app.freelanceunlocked.com/avo-assets/avo.base.js

[Paul-Bob]

I don't quite understand the issue you linked to. Is it still up-to-date?

The GitHub issue I linked is about making the fingerprinted version get loaded by default. Although it has been open for a while, no significant action has been taken yet, it's something to explore in Avo 4.

The assets are fingerprinted now during deploy, correct?
Why are the non-fingerprinted versions loaded?

Not exactly. If assets are getting fingerprinted during your app's deploy, there might be a specific configuration enabling it, such as:

Rails.application.config.assets.precompile += %w(avo.base.js)

However, by default, avo.base.js is not fingerprinted during the assets:precompile process.

What's happening, loading the non-fingerprinted version, is normal and expected behavior. The linked GitHub issue is a discussion about changing that behavior to prefer fingerprinted versions instead.

Also, there might have been a misunderstanding: when I mention a GitHub issue, I don't necessarily imply there's something wrong, rather, it's a place where this behavior was observed and discussed.

My issue is happening in production, everytime the asset is requested and not cached.
I tested it a few times, it takes 45-60sec to load:

The load time you're experiencing seems unlikely to be directly related to the asset being non-fingerprinted. Normally all Avo applications load non-fingerprinted Avo assets without such extreme delays.

Given that, the root cause might lie elsewhere, perhaps network latency, server configuration, or a deeper caching issue.
To accurately identify the problem, a more hands-on debugging session would be necessary, my remote diagnosis is quite limited in this case.

I did a quick Google search and found several threads discussing slow asset loading in Rails applications. I recommend exploring those and trying out the suggested fixes.

For example, this Stack Overflow thread talks about slow loading in development environments, but some of the insights might still be pertinent to your production case.

Let me know how it goes.

[manuelmeurer]

Thanks for the detailed reply!
You're right, the slow loading is probably related to my app's configuration, I will investigate further.

However, by default, avo.base.js is not fingerprinted during the assets:precompile process.

Well, it is definitely fingerprinted when I run assets:precompile, in production and development as well, and I haven't changed anything Rails.application.config.assets.precompile... 🤷‍♂️

[Paul-Bob]

Let me know if you pinpoint the issue!