Why is the SAS documentation website always so slow to load?

[Stratocaster]

Hi everyone,

I've been using the SAS documentation website for at least 10 years. However, for at least the last 5 years it has been so incredibly slow to load. It normally takes up to a minute to load but often takes 5 minutes to load. Why is this? It is the only website that I ever have trouble with. For example, one of the SAS bookmarks I have is:

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/proc/n1g0aqhqgty60yn1o3snwb7z2ppa.htm

It is so frustrating. Using the SAS website is like travelling back in time to early 1990s internet. It can't be my PC or network. I have no trouble with any other site on the internet but always have trouble with SAS. Has anyone else encountered this? It's entirely unsatisfactory.

[SASKiwi]

For me that doc link loads in 15 seconds over a slow VPN (and using Wifi) while at home.  Sometimes SAS documentation loads slower than 15 seconds but never 5 minutes. If I was in the office it would usually be quicker.

I suggest you try someone else's PC and network connection at your location to see if it is also slow. Networks have the biggest influence on page loading speeds in my experience.

[mkeintz]

I can not reproduce anything like the result you report.  From my home computer (around 8pm EST) it took about 5 seconds to load the bookmarked link you cite.

More generally, I have not had speed issues in loading SAS documentation links.  

[Ksharp]

Same to me.
But sometime it is fast, sometime it is very slow as you described .
Maybe the keyword you are trying to search is the key point here. When searching some special words ,website would become too much slowly.

[FreelanceReinh]

Hi @Stratocaster and welcome to the SAS Support Communities!

I have also experienced unusual slowness at times, but the speed varies. I strongly prefer the locally installed SAS Documentation Viewer (SASDocViewer.exe) over the documentation website. It is so much faster and also better aligned with the SAS release and the modules that I have actually installed.

Not sure if the SAS Documentation Viewer is available as a stand-alone product, but if it was, I would recommend it.

[yabwon]

@FreelanceReinh , 100% agree with your opinion, the SASDocViewer is 1e6-times "nicer" to work with then the doc page. I had situations when  while clicking through SASDocViewer I was able faster access help info than loading a googled page.

The biggest advantage of the SASDocViewer is that it's related directly to SAS version you are working on.

When one uses EG or Studio, and searches doc website, sometimes a "versions mix" situation happens, when work is on SAS version "X" and the doc page is for "Y". 

In 2019 SFG in Dallas, during live testing of EG8 and SAS studio, I've suggested SAS should add "local" help to those tools...

Bart

[Kurt_Bremser]

Just loaded that page, took less than 20 seconds. And that is typical in my experience. From where do you access the documentation? At home, office, mobile device?

[Kurt_Bremser]

Cool nickname, BTW. I own 6 of them, 1 Tokai,  2 Squiers, and 3 home-builds, one of them with a body from a 3D printer.

[ChrisNZ]

I never have to wait 5 minutes, but 5 to 15 seconds is common. That's much too slow to load a page

The SAS documentation website is the slowest website I use by a wide margin.

Also, the two screens (user id then password) to login are annoying.