Optimization best practices

To render charts and selectors, DataLens does not store data on its side; instead, it runs queries to the source database. These queries and any computations (formulas in calculated fields) are run on the data source side. Therefore, to speed up queries and rendering of the obtained data, you need to optimize the source data.

To optimize data operations, follow the tips below:

1. Work on the source data structure:

   • Do your best to store the data in a format that does not require any complex operations when querying it. If possible, calculate the data on the DB side first. This will allow you to minimize computations using DataLens formulas.

   • Explicitly declare data types on the DB side to avoid type conversions in large tables. For example, do not store dates as text.

   • Sort tables by frequently used dimensions (usually, these are dates).

   • When building data marts with a large number of rows, make sure to keep aggregated and detailed data in different tables and datasets. This will decrease the load on the source when running data queries.

   • Build systems of materialized tables on the DB side with different levels of detail for different charts and user tasks. Do not use a single large table for all tasks:

     • If most charts on a dashboard only show the sales amount by month, there is no need to store daily data. You can aggregate the data on the DB side and materialize a table.
     • If you need the chart data broken down by day, you can use a table with a higher level of detail.

     In this case, you can configure date selectors so that they filter all charts at the same time.

   • Create separate materialized reference tables for selectors to avoid selecting unique field values from large tables when generating a list of values for the selectors.

   • When using Join, a subquery is run to the full set of table fields. These operations are highly resource-consuming and will degrade dashboard performance for most databases. Therefore, to make your dashboards run faster:

     • If possible, change the table structure to reduce the number of joins in a dataset.
     • If possible, join the data on the DB side and materialize the table.

   • Consider the specifics of storing and accessing the data in the DB you are connecting to. For example, ClickHouse® cannot use indexes by nullable fields. Therefore, whenever possible, replace NULL in tables with non-empty values as long as this does not result in incorrect calculation results.

2. Reduce the load on the source when running data operations:

   • Try to exclude fields that are not used to create charts from a dataset.
   • We recommend adding fields at the dataset level instead of doing so at the chart level.
   • If you know for sure that certain table rows will not be used in a dashboard, remove them in advance by using prefiltering. Remove the columns you do not need from non-columnar databases.
   • If possible, do not create datasets based on SQL queries. If you do, a custom SQL query will be run each time you access the database.
   • Do not output a large number of points on a chart. Sometimes, DataLens technical restrictions will be against it. Generally, however, with fewer points on a chart, the performance will be faster.

3. Optimize the load on the source when setting up a dashboard:

   • Set dashboard selector values and use the defaults. The list of values set in a selector creates a condition for filtering chart data. If no value is selected, all data is returned. This increases the load on the source.
   • Optimize the dashboard structure. Queries to the source are run for each chart in the active tab. It may take much time to load a tab if there are too many charts. Place as few charts per tab as possible, based on how often they are used at the same time.
   • Reduce the use of auto updates for your dashboard data. Do not set its update frequency to a value larger than that of the source data update frequency.
   • Use the Number of simultaneously loaded widgets option in the dashboard settings.

4. Consider how DataLens works:

   • Each time you switch between the dashboard tabs, DataLens queries the source data again. This ensures the data displayed to users is always up-to-date. However, this is inefficient if data changes are not frequent.
   • Each time you set selector values, DataLens accesses the source and updates the data. If you use multiple selectors on your dashboard, the number of queries to the source increases.

5. Use the DataLens tools that help optimize data operations:

   • Chart inspector, a DataLens tool that helps you troubleshoot data loading and browser rendering issues.
   • Caching of frequently requested source data to quickly access it.

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