Nuxeo Server

How to Debug Slow Page Rendering

Updated: March 18, 2024

Several timers are available to debug slow JSF pages rendering.

Debug Phase Listener Timer

This listener will log on the server time spent for each JSF phase processing.

This listener is not thread-safe: timing will be meaningful only in a controlled environment (e.g. only one user displaying pages of a given application)

To activate it, add the following configuration to the $SERVER/lib/log4j.xml configuration:

<category name="org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.ui.web.rest.JSFDebugPhaseListener">
  <priority value="DEBUG" />
</category>

Sample output:

18:16:21,457 DEBUG [JSFDebugPhaseListener] RESTORE_VIEW 1: 60 ms
18:16:25,030 DEBUG [JSFDebugPhaseListener] RENDER_RESPONSE 6: 3378 ms

JSF Tags and Layout/Widget Timer

Some additional timers have been defined on Nuxeo custom tags and tag handlers. This can help understanding which parts of a given page are heavy to process and render.

Tags are included inside each other: a given tag timing will show this tag processing timing, added to all of its children tags timings.

To activate it, add the following configuration to the $SERVER/lib/log4j.xml configuration:

<category name="org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.ui.web.util.FaceletDebugTracer">
  <priority value="DEBUG" />
</category>

Also, you have to specify some minimal threshold for this timer to show a log on the server, so that it is easier to show debug logs for the slowest rendering. The following contribution, named enable-debug-jsf-tags-config.xml, can be placed inside the $SERVER/nxserver/config directory:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<component name="org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.enable.jsf.debug.tags.config">

  <require>org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.ui.web.configuration.default</require>

  <extension target="org.nuxeo.runtime.ConfigurationService"
    point="configuration">
    <property name="nuxeo.jsf.debug.log_min_duration_ms">20</property>
  </extension>

</component>

This will log only rendering that take more than 20 milliseconds.

Sample output:

8:16:23,490 DEBUG [FaceletDebugTracer] 'alias' at '/incl/action/generic_mode_action_template.xhtml @58,31 <nxl:widgetType>' took: 53 ms.
18:16:23,490 DEBUG [FaceletDebugTracer] 'defActionWidgetName' at '/incl/action/generic_mode_action_template.xhtml @22,116 <nxu:set>' took: 54 ms.
18:16:23,492 DEBUG [FaceletDebugTracer] 'nxuRepeat_items' at '/widgets/actions/actions_widget_template.xhtml @150,66 <nxu:repeat>' took: 152 ms.
18:16:23,492 DEBUG [FaceletDebugTracer] 'clickedActionId' at '/widgets/actions/actions_widget_template.xhtml @26,27 <nxu:valueHolder>' took: 170 ms.
18:16:23,492 DEBUG [FaceletDebugTracer] 'actionStyleClass' at '/widgets/actions/actions_widget_template.xhtml @14,16 <nxu:set>' took: 170 ms.
18:16:23,492 DEBUG [FaceletDebugTracer] 'actionContextDocument' at '/widgets/actions/document_actions_with_forms_widget_template.xhtml @11,16

Note that the timer is displayed after the rendering: included tags timings are printed before their parents.

Action Service Timers

Slow page rendering can be linked to heavy filtering processing on actions and/or linked filters.

To activate it, add the following configuration to the $SERVER/lib/log4j.xml configuration:

<category name="org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.actions.ActionService">
  <priority value="DEBUG" />
</category>

Also, you have to specify some minimal threshold for this timer to show a log on the server, so that it is easier to show debug logs for the slowest rendering. The following contribution, named enable-debug-jsf-actions-config.xml, can be placed inside the $SERVER/nxserver/config directory:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<component name="org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.enable.jsf.debug.actions.config">

  <require>org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.actions.ActionService.properties</require>

  <extension target="org.nuxeo.runtime.ConfigurationService"
    point="configuration">
    <property name="nuxeo.actions.debug.log_min_duration_ms">5</property>
  </extension>

</component>

This will log only rendering that take more than 5 milliseconds.

Sample output:

8:16:23,159 DEBUG [ActionService] Resolving actions for category 'LIVEEDIT_CREATE_ACTIONS' took: 6.30 ms
18:16:23,222 DEBUG [FaceletDebugTracer] '[document_header]' at '/view_documents.xhtml @25,36 <nxl:documentLayout>' took: 26 ms.
18:16:23,243 DEBUG [ActionService] Resolving filters [canRemoveFromFavorites] took: 10.55 ms
18:16:23,258 DEBUG [ActionService] Resolving filters [mutable_document, can_lock] took: 15.02 ms
18:16:23,267 DEBUG [ActionService] Resolving filters [hasNoSubscriptions, canSubscribe, isNotVersion] took: 7.80 ms
18:16:23,288 DEBUG [ActionService] Resolving filters [view_preview, not_folder, not_anonymous] took: 18.47 ms
18:16:23,321 DEBUG [ActionService] Resolving filters [hasVisibleRenditions] took: 33.26 ms
18:16:23,321 DEBUG [ActionService] Resolving actions for category 'DOCUMENT_UPPER_ACTION' took: 90.95 ms