Thread: SmartOPC unbearably slow in checkout using Real Time Shipping - Anyone else?

Hi Users,

We purchased ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT and the "SmartOPC" plugin pretty much for one thing - to facilitate checkout on an existing site and create orders, using Real Time shipping lookup from the carriers. We don't use any other features of the software, really all we need to work is SmartOPC.

Moving through the steps in SmartOPC has always been a bit slow, slower than everything else on the site, and we recently moved to a brand new dedicated server with tons of horsepower and memory, just to run this site. We just added Fedex to our existing carriers of UPS and USPS, so now we are providing real time rates for 3 carriers.

Now the process of moving through the steps in SmartOPC (moving from billing details, to the shipping list, to the "I am Over 13?" to "email preferences" is so slow it almost makes checkout unbearable. It can take 30-40 seconds to move from one section to another.

When you don't use RTShipping, or SmartOPC, everything works again. We're convinced that SmartOPC is unnecessarily looping through a lot of routines, and particularly rebuilding the RTShipping in every single step of the checkout, so getting these 3 lookups on each step is causing the problem. But 30-40 seconds?

We paid $199 for 'priority support' only to be given the obvious no-brainer stuff - check logs, check SQL, etc - we've done all that. CPU and memory are never above 5%. SQL responds to queries lightning fast. Our database is small.

Moreover, support claims that there are "thousands" of installed customers using SmartOPC and RTShipping without any issues, and they have a plethora of test machines at the offices where it all works fine. So it's "just us." Frustratingly though, we are never shown an example of where it is working fine. Sites we've managed to find, including the vendors, don't use RTShipping.

Is that true? We'd LOVE to hear from ANYONE using SmartOPC and RTShipping. Can you send us your store URL and let us check it out? IS it lightning fast or do you also exeperience serious performance issues?

It shouldn't take 20-30 seconds between steps. "Basic Checkout" is lightning fast. SmartOPC is not.

Thanks!

Our site - www.posterprintshop.com

We're also having a bit of an issue with OPC being very slow. OPC runs fine on our Dev server with the same data and the same payment methods. Postbacks take ~.5sec on dev but ~6sec on live. Not sure what could be causing it but if I find out, I'll post it.

Hey - we actually found out the issue after having to pay $300 for developer time to have them help after creating multiple tickets with priority support only to keep getting told we were crazy and it works fine, or to try the obvious.... got frustrating...

but the $300 developer was able to find the problem - in our instance there was no default currency set in the database. once the default currency was set, it became super speedy again.

saved us.

hope that might be your problem, if not, good luck!

Hello masterbeat,

I see that you got your SmartOPC issue resolved. Did you have any problems getting it initially configured. I can't even get my clients site (still in staging) to work. I seem to be at a loss with free support (not even responding to my latest inquiry) and was thinking of having my client pay for priority support, but after reading your post not sure if it will be worth it.

I just expected SmartOPC to work, but obviously, I was wrong.

Got any tips for me to get Smart OPC to even work???
Running MS 9.3 Express

Thanks, in advance, for your assistance.

Barney

Hey Barney,

We did finally get support on this issue, we had to buy priority support and then after that even buy additional developer support when regular support wouldn't take our word for it that there was a problem, the extra developer support figured out there was a problem with a variable missing that caused the problem and it was resolved.

Seems your problem is that Smart OPC is not working at all... so first check and make sure you have it enabled for the actual website, I know it is licensed seperately from the main program, so make sure you have it installed correctly (there are knowledgebase articles on this) - installed AND licensed so it's activated for your website. That should get it working.

But if you are still having problems, then yes, I would suggest you pay the $299 or whatever it is for 1 month of priority support - at least they will answer you and you'll get some attention. I think the free support is practically worthless, I think we pretty much always paid for priority support and figured it was worth it when we needed to ask quesitons, they do get back to you within a day.

Good luck!

Thanks Masterbeat,

We are running ms 9.3 Express, which they tell now had SmartOPC built in and that there is nothing to install. Take a look at this post on SmartOPC that I started>
http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.co...ss-Not-Working

Another question for you; What Payment Gateway are you using with SmartOPC? I'm thinking of recommending Paypal Payments Pro simply because it handles Credit cards and Paypal users can use their Paypal accounts. I'm also thing of offering users, in addition to paypal, Amazon & Google checkouts. But I want to do everything with the SmartOPC.

Is there any tips you can share with regard to SmartOPC & Paypal Payments Pro, Amazon & Google Checkouts?

Thanks in advance Masterbeat!

There is no question that the SmartOPC is slow to the point of being considered broken. Just attempt to use the checkout on vortx's own www.aspdotnetstorefront.com (with, say, a $1 loyalty point purchase) and navigating the pane postbacks takes several seconds per. As in 5-10 seconds per.

I've looked at what's happening behind the scenes, and it's constantly deep populating the objects from the database and using all of its customer and cart objects very inefficiently.