Large custom MPF projects slow to load? Solution here!

Question

For our projects with 2000-3000 files, this results in a 30:1 improvement in project load times.

1. In ProjectNode.Reload(), move ProcessFolders() before ProcessFiles().

2. In ProjectNode.ProcessFiles(), change:

foreach (MSBuild.BuildItem item in projectFiles)

to

foreach (MSBuild.BuildItem item in projectFiles.Cast<MSBuild.BuildItem>().OrderByDescending(i=>i.FinalItemSpec ?? i.Name))

3. Add the following member variables to your class that derives from ProjectNode:

1	// serious optimization for Reloads of large projects:
2	Dictionary<string, HierarchyNode> _folders;
3	bool _reloading;
4

4. Override ProjectNode.Reload() in your custom ProjectNode class. Change the call to base.Reload() to this:

1	_reloading = true;
2	_folders = new Dictionary<string, HierarchyNode>( StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase );
3
4	try
5	{
6	base.Reload();
7	}
8	finally
9	{
10	_reloading = false;
11	_folders = null;
12	}
13

5. Override ProjectNode.CreateFolderNodes(string path) in your custom ProjectNode class as follows:

1	public override HierarchyNode CreateFolderNodes( string path )
2	{
3	HierarchyNode node;
4
5	if ( _reloading )
6	{
7	if ( _folders.TryGetValue( path, out node ) )
8	return node;
9	}
10
11	node = base.CreateFolderNodes( path );
12	if ( _reloading )
13	_folders[path] = node;
14
15	return node;
16	}
17

Answer 1

I am a beginner with building packages. This looks like what I need. I am adding possibly thousands of projectitems to the project at once. What interfaces would I be using to be able to use these optimizations?

Answer 2

This post is about people providing custom project systems, it wouldn't do anything if you were interacting with a project system. I don't know if there is an optimal way to add 'thousands of projectitems', that likely isn't a mainline scenario that the APIs were designed for.

Ryan