Workload

Optimizing for workload

In this article series, we'll dive into the workload metric and how you can optimize your app to consume less workload while retaining a great user experience.

This article series covers how to work with workload in practice, and tips and tricks to reduce workload consumption. If you'd like to learn more about how the metric works and the different processes that spend workload, you may want to read the article series below first:

Article series: Pricing and workload

This series delves into methods to lower workload consumption. Some sections discuss advanced Bubble techniques. If you're new to Bubble, we suggest familiarizing yourself with the fundamental features before exploring this content.

We especially recommend getting to know the difference between client-side and server-side. We have a separate article covering this topic:

Article: Server-side and client-side

Introduction to workload planning and development

Before we explore methods to optimize workload consumption, it's important to emphasize a point: workload is a resource meant to be used. After all, if your app doesn't spend any server resources, it's hard to do much at all.

Building an app isn't about minimizing workload at all costs, but striking a balance between user experience and resource usage.

Workload is a resource meant to be used. Building an app isn't about minimizing workload at all costs, but striking a balance between user experience and resource usage.

In app development, you'll often face trade-offs. At times, enhancing user experience might increase workload. However, sometimes a minor change in user interaction can conserve workload and aid scalability. It's all about finding the right balance.

Understanding the overall consumption

If you already have your app set up, it's first important to have a look at how the total workload consumption looks in your app. You can use the workload metrics dashboard to see how your app is doing, and what processes are consuming the most workload.

The reason we bring this up, is that it can help you prioritize your work. After all, optimizing for workload is just one of the things you can do in your app. Adding new features, polishing the design and user experience and working with growth can be equally important. Optimizing for workload is not a competition, but a process that should be part of a priority plan along with other development and business goals.

So, as you move forward, consider workload optimization as one piece of a larger puzzle, aiming for a harmonious blend of performance, functionality, and delightful user interactions.

Using the dashboard can give you a general understanding:

  • How much workload am I currently spending?

  • Am I overspending the allotted workload in my plan, or am I well within my limit?

    • If I am overspending, should I consider upgrading my plan or buying workload units, or should I spend time optimizing my app?

  • How is my growth trajectory, and how will it affect workload consumption in the coming months?

As this illustrates, your dashboard can give you two indications that can help you plan your workload optimization:

  • What your current consumption looks like

  • What it will look like in the future, given that you reach a certain growth goal

Not all apps are supposed to grow in users: if you have a commercial app where an increase in number of users is a key metric, your current workload can tell you a lot about what the future will look like: if X number of users spend Y amount of workload today, it's not unreasonable to expect the two metrics to develop fairly linearly.

If you are building a more closed app with a fairly fixed number of users (such as an app for your workplace or another organization), then your current consumption is likely to remain predictable if not constant.

Using this data, you can make a strategic decision. Workload optimization may be worth spending time and resources on if your current consumption or expected growth hinges on it; otherwise, you might decide to concentrate on other pressing priorities.

Sections

Understanding the workload calculation

The first article in the series takes a look at how the workload metric works, and how you can work to understand how design decisions affect the calculation.

Article: Understanding the workload calculation

Planning for workload: finding the right balance between efficiency and UX

It makes sense to optimize your app to not spend more WU than it has too. That being said, WU optimization is only one of many goals. This article explores how you can find the right balance between WU and other aspects of your app such as development time and user experience.

Article: Planning for workload

Searches: what makes a search consume workload?

In this article, we cover how queries using the Do a search for data source can be set up to be more or less efficient, thus affecting the final WU consumption of a search.

Article Searches and WU

Page load: why what happens on page load is so important for WU

When a page loads in Bubble, a lot of stuff can potentially happen: searches are performed to display data on the page and workflows can execute from the When page is loaded event or other events that run when a page is loaded. This means that this is a key area of improvement for WU consumption.

Article: Page load and WU

Workflows and actions: how to set up efficient workflows, condtions and actions

How much workload a workflow consumes depends on a range of factors, such as what kind of actions it includes, conditions on those actions and the workflow itself, and the methods you use in any dynamic expressions inside of the workflow.

Article: Workflows, actions and WU

Backend workflows: optimizing server-side workflows in the backend editor

Bubble's backend editor contains different features such as internal scheduled API workflows, the Bubble API, database trigger events and recurring or recursive workflows. In this article, we'll dive into how you can optimize backend workflows to not spend more WU than needed.

Article: Backend workflows and WU

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