Question

I have made a generic handler (.ashx) to fetch some database values using jquery ajax. I have a few questions:

1. Why is the first call to the handler always the slowest one?

2. Is there any way to decrease the response-time from the point that the HTTP-get/post is made until i get back a response from the handler? My current code looks something like this:

   public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
   {
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/json";
        SOFAEntities ctx = new SOFAEntities();
        JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        string systemKey = HttpContext.Current.Request["SystemKey"];
   
        try
       {
           SYSTEM_AUDIT_SHEET auditSheet = ctx.SYSTEM_AUDIT_SHEET.Where(s => s.SYSTEM_KEY == systemKeyDec).Select(s => s).OrderByDescending(s => s.AUDIT_SHEET_VERSION).First();
           HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(serializer.Serialize(auditSheet));
       }
       catch (Exception e)
       {
           HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(serializer.Serialize(new ErrorObj() { ErrorMessage = e.Message }));
       }
   }
   

Answer 1

1: There are several possible reasons, which all can add up to make the first request slower, like:

• The code has to be compiled / JITted
• There is no database connection in the pool, so one has to be established
• The database request is not cached in the datanase

2: You could serialise the objects manually, instead of using the generic serialiser, which uses reflection.