App Startup Time

ideas.md

App startup

• Start on iOS is comparable to other apps I use. 3-4 seconds.
• Problem mostly seems to be Android.
• Meteor waits until ddp connection made before closing launch screen. We don't need to do that.
• Try upgrading crosswalk plugin.
• Maybe the launch screen plugin?
• https://medium.com/@gautham.gg/reduce-the-launch-time-of-a-meteor-mobile-app-e2f009951011?source=linkShare-2a8267bb006f-1469058209
• Code splitting?

Tests

• try with different launch screen settings. could be delay or autohide?
• try with closing launch screen immediately on load of app
• try without launch screen plugin (see if main.html gets rendered?)
• try without any cordova plugins
• try with disabling wait for DDP connection
• try with newer crosswalk. meteor locks at 1.6, 1.8 is out
• i really don't want to but if it's bundle size then try with webpack code splitting (i don't think it's bundle size)
• use network safari debug pane and iOS sim to see what actually gets loaded from server on load
• test build with all our app code commented out
• test blank project

Hockey Builds

• 942: no launch screen
• 952: no app code + meow

Here is what is loaded from the server, just for reference.

1. a["{\"msg\":\"ping\"}"]
2. a["{\"msg\":\"added\",\"collection\":\"serverWatches\",\"id\":\"Lxe639mBRZQqokEye\",\"fields\":{\"key\":\"ROCK\",\"isAlive\":true}}", "{\"msg\":\"ready\",\"subs\":[\"uCKHXEMbDG3MfCzav\"]}", "{\"msg\":\"ready\",\"subs\":[\"WRsrtmBq45zuJG9vb\"]}", "{\"msg\":\"added\",\"collection\":\"meteor_autoupdate_clientVersions\",\"id\":\"6uTaXr3jTXdkoYh7N\",\"fields\":{\"current\":true}}", "{\"msg\":\"added\",\"collection\":\"meteor_autoupdate_clientVersions\",\"id\":\"version\",\"fields\":{\"version\":\"af3c11b58b360696a38847c7ef6eeefaba4da9c1\"}}", "{\"msg\":\"added\",\"collection\":\"meteor_autoupdate_clientVersions\",\"id\":\"version-cordova\",\"fields\":{\"version\":\"0c531e0df0b8bafc281d122769d2a2b38036eda6\",\"refreshable\":false}}", "{\"msg\":\"added\",\"collection\":\"meteor_autoupdate_clientVersions\",\"id\":\"version-refreshable\",\"fields\":{\"version\":\"8822ea86c97b7a5102656ed00c883d0c146579eb\",\"assets\":{\"allCss\":[{\"url\":\"/b9213b1c6754ff9193ffc097c28004a13614c326.css?meteor_css_resource=true\"}]}}}", "{\"msg\":\"ready\",\"subs\":[\"B9heGEWsZv6RYBQHu\"]}"]
3. a["{\"msg\":\"ready\",\"subs\":[\"aGrZkCsGjvXi4X5Ms\"]}"]
4. { "websocket": false, "origins": ["*:*"], "cookie_needed": false, "entropy": 3499980622 }
5. a["{\"msg\":\"pong\"}"]

So, it looks like it does a ping, then loads collection data, and then information about the server itself. The ping/pong continues indefinitely.

main.html does not rendered during launch of the app. It is rendered at the same time the JS starts to run. So, rendering an app shell from there won't be possible.

Screen capture of app without launch screen running in simulator:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cqxqshy1m4qhhws/android.mov?dl=0

This does seem to be faster. Will try again with launch screen for comparison.

Screen capture of app with launch screen in simulator:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/frih4u21i4of8a0/android-launch.mov?dl=0

Actually, this feels about the same.

I'm going to mark the test of different launch screen settings as done for now, as it seems the the launch time is the same regardless of the presence of launch screen plugin

Screen capture of app with all application code commented out:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6n3aofu51wgnydh/android-no-code.mov?dl=0

Sadly, this supports the idea that it's our bundle size