Android - major problem with speed using Amharic

[Keith Tomlin]

Hi - I have an Android application which currently uses two languages - English and Amharic (non-Latin text). So I have value sets in both languages, and CAPI in both languages. When choosing the English language the speed on the tablet I'm using is fine (An Android Galaxy Tab 3); but when I choose the Amharic language the speed slows drastically - it can take up to 15 seconds between pressing the screen advance button and the screen changing. This will not be workable in the field. Has anyone else encountered this problem, and if so does anyone have a solution? I have also installed a multi-language keyboard in which Amharic text can be added, although there is not much free text in the application.

Any help extremely gratefully received. This is more important than all my other recent posts!

Keith Tomlin
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

[josh]

Can you test it using just Amharic in value sets (responses) but English for the CAPI text and also with Amharic for CAPI text and English for value sets? This way we can isolate where the slowness is. I suspect the CAPI text but I could be wrong.

[Keith Tomlin]

Hi Josh - thanks for replying quickly. Earlier this evening I tried removing all of the English value sets and just kept the Amharic, but that didn't make any difference. Then I removed all of the CAPI languages except for the Amharic (making it an Amharic-only application), but again no difference. I haven't yet tried removing the Amharic CAPI and keeping the English value-sets, but without Amaharic CAPI the application is useless. The CAPI does use some bold text, and blue font for instructions to the interviewers, I'm not sure if that would make a difference. There is no problem at all with using the English selection, which uses the same formatting.

My main application has about 440 items/sub-items in, and by around half-way through, when using Amharic, there is a 20 second delay between hitting the advance button and the screen changing. This will make it very difficult to complete questionnaires in the available time in the field.

Any suggestions from anyone very welcome!

Keith

[josh]

I wasn't suggesting removing the Amharic as a permanent solution but just as a test to see if it is Amharic value sets or the Amharic CAPI text that is slowing you down.

I made a 3 question test app with English and Amharic and I can't see a speed difference on either my LG3 phone or my Samsung Note 10.1 tablet.

If you post your app I could look at it in the debugger to try and see what is causing the slowdown.

If you are using the beta version of CSEntry you might try with the production version (from Google Play Store) as it doesn't have debug logging so it should perform faster.

[Keith Tomlin]

Hi Josh - thanks - the slowdown doesn't happen immediately - for the first 60 questions or so all seems fine, but by the time I get to question 150 the advance to the next screen is noticeably slow, and by around question 300 the delay is around 20 seconds. None of us have actually made it to the end of the questionnaire yet in Amharic, so it may slow down further still. I've tried it on 3 tablets, all have the same problem.

Some of the team here are using the beta version, but I've also had the same problem on the last official version, so I don't think it's that. I could well be wrong though.

I'd be very happy to send you my application - I'm going to do that in my next message, as the internet connection here in Addis is very poor, and I want this message to get through first.

Thanks again for your quick replies and offer of help - it really makes a difference, as I don't know anyone else here who uses CSPro.

All the best

Keith

[Keith Tomlin]

Hi Josh - here is my application - apologies in advance for my poor programming.

Any advice at all on how to deal with this would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks

Keith

[josh]

Thanks Keith. We will take a look.

[josh]

We are able to reproduce the slowdown on our tablets here. One of my colleagues is looking into what is causing it. We will get back to you.

[Keith Tomlin]

Morning Josh - I really, really appreciate your help and support in this. And it's incredibly useful to know that you are finding the same problem.

We are doing some field testing today with the application that I sent to you, in Amharic - we planned it several weeks ago, and have decided to go ahead with it. It may be slow-going, but if I can tell our interviewers that you are looking into the problem, I'm sure it will help.

Really looking forward to hearing back from you. And of course let me know if you have any questions at all about the application I sent - as you'll have seen I still have work to do on translating error messages, among other things.

Thanks again

Keith

[Keith Tomlin]

Hi Josh

I was wondering if you have any update about this problem? We went ahead with our field testing on Tuesday, but the time to move from one data-entry screen to the next became so long that we had to abandon using the tablets and move to paper questionnaires. We also started to get a message saying "CSPro is not longer responding" (with options to wait or stop) which I hadn't seen before.

Something we discovered subsequently is that if a case is exited using partial save and then re-opened, the screen-change returns to its normal speed. It's as if the memory (or something) is being overloaded by processing the Amharic characters, and closing the case clears the memory. However, there is a risk in asking interviewers to close and re-open cases because of the chance of them re-opening the wrong case. Is there a function in CSPro which automatically re-opens a case and returns to the last field after it has been partially saved and closed?

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give with this.

All the best

Keith Tomlin
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.