Relation widget slow on initial load

[sveinpg]

Describe the bug
We're using the relations widget to select authors for articles. This was fine to begin with. However, as the number of authors increased the load time increased drastically.

From other issues I understand that each a request is sent for each file and those should be cached after the initial load. However, our authors typically open this widget once.

Number of authors in collection: ~200

To Reproduce
Assuming the collections exist and one of the collections have relation to another collection

1. Create a new item (or select an existing one)
2. Click the dropdown

Expected behavior
Faster load time. A couple of seconds for example.

A possible solution could be that the search functionally limited the number of requests.

Applicable Versions:

• Netlify CMS version: 2.13.3
• Browser version: Latest chrome and firefox

CMS configuration

collections:
    - name: post_javascript
      label: 'Post: JavaScript'
      folder: post/javascript
      create: true
      summary: '{{post_year}}/{{post_day}}: {{title}}'
      fields:
          - { label: 'Calendar', name: 'calendar', widget: 'hidden', default: 'javascript' }
          - {
                label: 'Year',
                name: 'post_year',
                widget: 'number',
                default: 2020,
                valueType: 'int',
                min: 2018,
                max: 2021,
            }
          - {
                label: 'Day',
                name: 'post_day',
                widget: 'number',
                default: 1,
                valueType: 'int',
                min: 1,
                max: 24,
            }
          - { name: title, label: Title }
          - { name: image, label: 'Link to image', required: false }
          - { name: ingress, label: 'Ingress', widget: markdown, required: false }
          - { name: description, label: 'SEO Description', widget: text, required: false }
          - { name: body, label: Body, widget: markdown }
          - name: links
            label: 'Relevant links'
            widget: list
            fields:
                - { name: title, label: Title }
                - { name: url, label: Url }
          - name: authors
            label: 'Authors'
            widget: list
            field:
                {
                    label: 'Author',
                    name: 'author',
                    widget: 'relation',
                    collection: 'authors',
                    searchFields: ['title'],
                    valueField: 'title',
                    displayFields: ['title'],
    - name: authors
      label: Authors
      folder: authors
      create: true
      fields:
          - { name: title, label: Name }
          - {
                name: socialMediaLink,
                label: 'Link to social media (twitter, linkedin etc.)',
                required: false,
            }
          - { name: 'company', label: 'Company', default: 'Bekk' }

[banyudu]

@sveinpg This question occurs to me, too.
If you have only one field (author) in the list, you can use a relation widget with multiple: true instead of a list of relations.

          - name: authors
            label: 'Author',
            widget: 'relation',
            multiple: true, # accepts multiple values
            collection: 'authors',
            searchFields: ['title'],
            valueField: 'title',
            displayFields: ['title'],

However, it didn't help with multiple fields inside a list.

[taineriley1]

Hi @sveinpg @banyudu @erezrokah,

We are experiencing similar issues with this widget and would also like the performance improved. This widget is very useful for connecting entries together, and I've seen several issues in this repo referencing it.

Thanks,
Taine