5.2 Browser Experience and Performance

Read the Timing Before You Change Anything

When a page is slow, the useful first fact is where the time went. Performance details open when you double-click the Oracle NetSuite logo in the upper-left corner of any page in the NetSuite application. Help names that logo specifically. The window is different for each user, and an administrator can copy the text into a support case when a page is consistently slow.

The window includes these rows:

• Total is the page load time in seconds. Help notes that this total may not apply to reports, dashboards, centers, or saved searches, so a slow Home page is not diagnosed from that total alone.
• Server is the time, and the share of the total, spent retrieving information from the NetSuite server. That time includes server-side scripts and workflows, and custom fields and other custom elements can add to it.
• Server SuiteScript is the part of server time spent on server-side scripting. Server Workflow is the part spent on workflows.
• Network is the time for data to travel from the NetSuite servers to the computer. If this row is the largest share, Help points to the path between NetSuite and the computer and to the network-performance topic.
• Client is the time for the computer to render the page. If this row is the largest share, start with the client checks below.
• Page, Email, and Time show the address of the page, the email on the account, and the system date and time.

If the server does not send the end-to-end metric, Help says only Client, Page, Email, and Time appear. For a page that is slow every time, Help recommends Application Performance Management rather than relying on a single snapshot. The status page at status.netsuite.com is the place to see whether a system issue is already in progress.

Server Time

Help treats customization as the usual reason server time grows. Configuration changes, added scripting, additional workflows, extra forms and fields, and features that add business logic all give the server more work. The more logic a page must process, the longer it takes to load. The Server, Server SuiteScript, and Server Workflow rows tell you whether scripts or workflows dominate that share, and whether custom fields are a plausible part of the story. Acting on a script or a workflow is an administrator task. The user's job on a slow page is to capture the performance details from that page instead of guessing.

A wide search is a different kind of server load. Global search deliberately limits how many matches it returns so it stays fast, and a generic keyword can come back empty. A list or saved search that pulls a huge row set still makes the page heavier. On Home > Set Preferences, lowering Number of Rows in List Segments reduces how much of a long list loads at once. Help calls a segment size of 50 a balanced choice. Checking Delay Loading of Sublists waits to load a subtab until you click it, which shortens the first paint of the page. Setting Maximum Entries in Dropdowns to 50 or less, unless you truly need longer menus, turns oversized lists into popups so the page does not fetch every value when it opens. The preference note also says that 25 or less improves page-load time. Those three preferences are user controls. They do not remove a slow script, but they stop the browser from asking for more rows and list values than the task needs.

The first time you open a heavy page, Help expects extra delay because caches are stale. That lag is common in the morning or after a break. Repeating the action can put it in cache. That pattern is different from a page that stays slow on every attempt.

Client Time and the Browser

Client time is the computer drawing the page. Other applications share memory with the browser. Help does not publish a universal memory requirement, because the same machine might handle NetSuite alone and still struggle when NetSuite runs beside voice software, or when one sales order contains a very large number of lines. Help's practical checks are concrete. Close programs you are not using. See whether threat software inspects each page before the browser shows it. Test another browser and keep the one that renders the page faster. Remove browser add-ons one at a time, especially antivirus, anti-spam, and phishing add-ons. If only one form type is slow, compare that form with a form that loads quickly before you blame the whole account.

Supported browsers for the NetSuite application are separate from the browsers supported for Commerce websites. Help lists the two most recent stable major versions of Google Chrome, Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, and Safari, plus the two most recent stable versions of Firefox and the latest Firefox Extended Support Release. Chrome and Firefox are listed for Windows 10 or newer and macOS 10.15 or newer. Edge is listed for Windows 10 or newer. Safari is listed for its two most recent stable macOS versions. An unsupported browser is a fair first explanation when one browser is slow or odd and a supported browser is not. Safari users who cannot open Help may need to turn off Prevent cross-site tracking under Safari's privacy settings, then quit Safari and open it again. Most actions work on a touch screen, with occasional minor issues. Phones have a separate NetSuite app, with its own requirements.

A stale screen has a cache check of its own. When the interface does not show a change that was already saved, Help's browser-cache guidance is to clear the cache and cookies, try a private window, and log out of NetSuite and back in. Do that for a stale display. Do not reload the browser while a transaction still has unsaved edits you need to keep.

A Slow Dashboard, Then an Open Cash Sale

A slow Home page often comes from too many expanded portlets. Key performance indicator portlets and custom saved-search portlets are called out because they request live data. If you need the destination but not the live numbers at login, a shortcut is lighter than an expanded portlet. To keep a slow portlet on the page without loading its data up front, click its title. The portlet stays minimized the next time you log in or refresh the dashboard, until you click the title again.

On the Appearance subtab, Show Portlet Hint displays a popup when dashboard portlets take too long and time out. The remedy in that hint is the same one Help gives for dashboard load time: minimize the slow portlets. The Landing Page preference can also open a lighter tab than Home. Which portlet types exist, and how to add them, belongs to the portlet chapter. The performance behavior is the point here.

A different symptom is a message that arrives while a transaction is open. Suppose you are editing a cash sale and a customer email has just landed in NetSuite. Reloading the whole browser page can discard unsaved header, line, and payment fields. The way to see the new message and keep those edits is the Communication subtab, then Refresh on the Messages sublist. That refresh reloads the message list on the open record. It does not reload the transaction form.

Use the largest share to pick the next check. Server points to scripts, workflows, and other customizations. Network points to the path between NetSuite and the computer. Client points to the browser, its add-ons, and the machine. Copy the window into a support case when the page is consistently slow and the rows are not enough to explain it.