There are several factors that can impact the form/portal performance and cause it to slow down.
1. Number of Linked Record Fields (most common)
When a form loads multiple linked record fields (with child records), a noticeable slowdown is expected. This happens because the data is being retrieved from other tables, which can add a few extra seconds to the load time for each table.
Linked record fields are related to child forms, which exist as distinct entities. They fetch data from another table, thereby contributing to an extended loading time for the form or portal. You can draw a parallel by comparing a form featuring multiple linked record fields with one encompassing just a single linked record field, and the difference in loading time becomes apparent.
You can increase the performance significantly if you include formula fields that reflect the value of your linked record fields in your form/portal. Use {FieldName}
when creating the formula field to get a read-only version of its content.
2. Number of records
The grid/gallery supports pagination by default to speed up loading times. It limits the number of shown records to 100 and allows users to click "more" to load the next page. But if you have a lot of records and/or a lot of images, the performance may become slow. We recommend reducing the number of records by using filters to control the view.
3. Number of fields
You can hide some fields so that only the most important fields are shown by default. Users would need to click to expand the record and see the rest of the fields.
4. Image resolution
This is a possible reason for slow performance in a gallery view, especially. If you have very high-resolution images, we recommend resizing these images for them to load faster. You can use one of our automatons to do that.
5. Airtable Limit
The Airtable API normally allows a standard request rate of 5 requests per second. However, if you reach your monthly limit in Airtable, the rate is reduced to 2 requests per second, impacting the speed of extensions.
The portal and form employ caching, which means that the initial loading of records may take longer. However, subsequent access to the records should be faster due to the caching mechanism.