Improve startup performance (especially when opening files)

[tobiasdiez]

I investigated the performance when starting JabRef and found the following things that can be improved:

• At the moment, opening a file blocks the JavaFX thread which makes the impression that JabRef is frozen. Instead an empty database should be opened immediately (with the correct name), which shows a progress indicator in the maintable until the database is parsed. In particular, files should be parsed in a background thread and not on the JavaFX thread.

  This applies also to the files that are opened at the beginning: This is fixed with Performance improvements for GUI start up #5423

• When opening a file,
  

  jabref/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/JabRefFrame.java

  Line 1010 in 311afa3

  BackupManager.start(context, Globals.entryTypesManager, prefs);

  
  invokes the backup manager, which creates a backup file. This shouldn't be necessary as there were no changes to the file yet.

• The group side panel should be converted from fxml to plain Java code (parsing fxml takes about 500ms)

• When opening a database, the autocompletion is initalized on the main thread.
  

  jabref/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/BasePanel.java

  Lines 743 to 747 in 311afa3

  	// Set up name autocompleter for search:
  	instantiateSearchAutoCompleter();
  	this.getDatabase().registerListener(new SearchAutoCompleteListener());
  	setupAutoCompletion();

  
  This should be done in a background thread. This is fixed with Performance improvements for GUI start up #5423.

[github-actions]

This issue has been inactive for half a year. Since JabRef is constantly evolving this issue may not be relevant any longer and it will be closed in two weeks if no further activity occurs.

As part of an effort to ensure that the JabRef team is focusing on important and valid issues, we would like to ask if you could update the issue if it still persists. This could be in the following form:

• If there has been a longer discussion, add a short summary of the most important points as a new comment (if not yet existing).
• Provide further steps or information on how to reproduce this issue.
• Upvote the initial post if you like to see it implemented soon. Votes are not the only metric that we use to determine the requests that are implemented, however, they do factor into our decision-making process.
• If all information is provided and still up-to-date, then just add a short comment that the issue is still relevant.

Thank you for your contribution!

[github-actions]

This issue has been inactive for half a year. Since JabRef is constantly evolving this issue may not be relevant any longer and it will be closed in two weeks if no further activity occurs.

As part of an effort to ensure that the JabRef team is focusing on important and valid issues, we would like to ask if you could update the issue if it still persists. This could be in the following form:

• If there has been a longer discussion, add a short summary of the most important points as a new comment (if not yet existing).
• Provide further steps or information on how to reproduce this issue.
• Upvote the initial post if you like to see it implemented soon. Votes are not the only metric that we use to determine the requests that are implemented, however, they do factor into our decision-making process.
• If all information is provided and still up-to-date, then just add a short comment that the issue is still relevant.

Thank you for your contribution!

[koppor]

Still two tasks opened to get this done.