The Design Advisor is a tool that automatically checks your programs and detects if there are possible ways to improve performance and usability.
Applying the modifications recommended by the Design Advisor greatly improves the performance and usability of your programs.
How to use the Design Advisor
When the automated check finds a potential issue, an information icon appears in the toolbar of the application.
When clicked, the solution to the issue is stated, with a link to a detailed explanation.
Improvements recommended by the Design Advisor
Use combined segments instead of multiple segmentation nodes
When you have multiple sequentially connected segments, the Design Advisor will suggest creating a combined segment of these.
Creating a combined segment may take some time but the speed of the program will improve a lot if there is only one segment to process.
To create a combined segment of sequentially connected segments, proceed as follows:
1. Make note of the segments used in these nodes.
2. Go to Contacts -> Combined Segments in the menu and click Create Combined Segment.
3. After naming your new combined segment, add the segments to the Included segments section of the page with the + sign and select the operator that is used: AND or OR.
4. When you are finished, click Run to check the results.
For more information, see Combining Segments.
Do not use the same segment in multiple programs as exit criteria
When you have the same segment as exit criteria on multiple programs, the Design Advisor will suggest making copies of the segment and using one copy per program.
This way you can avoid performance problems when the same segment is run by multiple programs at the same time.
Go to Contacts -> Segments, search for the segment used and copy it.
When naming the copies, it's a good idea to include the program name where you will use it. This will make it easier to find in the program node.
It is also a good idea to use the Description field of the original segment to keep track of all the programs where copies of the segment are used, in case you later update it and want to update all the copies as well.
