[✨ Triage] dotnet/aspire#11838 by vsantele - Dashboard is slow to expand and collapse span with a lot of children #1557
Description
Triage for dotnet/aspire#11838.
Repo filter: area-dashboard issues.
MihuBot version: 554101.
Ping MihaZupan for any issues.
This is a test triage report generated by AI, aimed at helping the triage team quickly identify past issues/PRs that may be related.
Take any conclusions with a large grain of salt.
Tool logs
dotnet/aspire#11838: Dashboard is slow to expand and collapse span with a lot of children by vsantele
[Tool] Searching for dashboard slow expand collapse spans, traces view performance, large number of spans dashboard, dashboard UI slow, span expand collapse performance, dashboard scalability, dashboard traces many children, dashboard traces large trace (IncludeOpen=True, IncludeClosed=True, IncludeIssues=True, IncludePullRequests=True, Repository=dotnet/aspire)
[Tool] Found 108 issues, 272 comments, 40 returned results (14632 ms)
Here are the most relevant related issues and discussions for triaging issue #11838 ("Dashboard is slow to expand and collapse span with a lot of children"):
1. Issue #2103 (Feb 2024) - "Traces dashboard view freeze/crash when viewing large trace"
- Summary: User reported dashboard freezing and crashing when viewing a trace with a large number of spans. The root cause was a FluentUI DataGrid bug where randomly generated row IDs could conflict, especially with many rows.
- Discussion: The Aspire team discussed virtualization as a solution to improve performance. A bug was filed with FluentUI, and a fix was implemented in FluentUI to use sequential row IDs. Aspire updated to the latest FluentUI version, resolving the crash and improving performance for large traces.
- Resolution: Issue resolved after updating FluentUI and Aspire packages. Virtualization was suggested and later implemented to improve performance.
- View issue & comments
2. PR #2807 (Mar 2024) - "Improve performance of trace detail page with big traces"
- Summary: This PR enabled virtualization in the trace detail page's span graph, which is built using FluentDataGrid. Only the visible data is rendered, making the page much faster with thousands of spans.
- Discussion: Demo and review comments show significant performance improvements for large traces.
- Resolution: Merged; virtualization is now active for the trace detail page.
- View PR & comments
3. PR #10308 (July 2025) - "Optimize trace detail page performance"
- Summary: Further optimization to the trace detail page: the page now only updates when the currently viewed trace changes, avoiding unnecessary re-renders when other traces update.
- Discussion: Includes unit tests and addresses performance for large traces.
- Resolution: Merged; additional performance improvements for trace detail page.
- View PR & comments
4. PR #8771 (Apr 2025) & PR #8909 (Apr 2025, backport) - "Ensure visible trace spans stay sorted by start time and fix Traces view expand/collapse icons"
- Summary: Fixes bugs where spans were displayed out of order and expand/collapse icons were not working. Also improves the data structure for visible spans to a sorted set for better performance and correctness.
- Discussion: Includes manual and unit testing, and discussion of hash collisions and performance with large traces.
- Resolution: Merged and backported; fixes expand/collapse and sorting issues for large traces.
- View PR & comments
- View backport PR
5. Issue #8731 (Apr 2025) - "Traces details view bugs related to inconsistent nested activity ordering and collapse/expand not working"
- Summary: Reports bugs with ordering and expand/collapse functionality in traces view, especially with nested activities. Includes a repro with many child spans.
- Discussion: Confirmed by team, patched in Aspire 9.2.1. Instructions provided for updating to the fixed version.
- Resolution: Fixed in 9.2.1; update recommended for users experiencing these issues.
- View issue & comments
6. Issue #8799 (Apr 2025) - "Traces view expand/collapse icons do not expand/collapse"
- Summary: Clicking on chevron animates but does not expand/collapse spans. Related to #8771.
- Discussion: Patched in Aspire 9.2.1; update instructions provided.
- Resolution: Fixed in 9.2.1.
- View issue & comments
7. PR #9474 (May–Aug 2025) - "Add 'Collapse all'/'Expand all' functionality in trace detail page"
- Summary: Adds "Collapse all" and "Expand all" options to help users manage large trace hierarchies efficiently.
- Discussion: Extensive review and feedback, including UI/UX improvements and localization. Ensures root spans are preserved when collapsing all.
- Resolution: Merged; improves usability for traces with many spans.
- View PR & comments
8. Issue #9434 (May–Aug 2025) - "Add 'Collapse All'/'Expand All' buttons in the trace page"
- Summary: Feature request for recursive collapse/expand of spans, especially useful for traces with many children.
- Discussion: Team agreed and implemented via PR #9474.
- Resolution: Feature implemented.
- View issue & comments
9. Issue #4439 (Jun 2024) - "Ability to filter/search for individual spans for a specific trace in dashboard"
- Summary: User requests a quick filter for traces with hundreds of spans, as navigation is difficult.
- Discussion: Highlights the challenge of navigating large traces and the need for better UI tools.
- Resolution: No direct fix yet, but related to performance and usability for large traces.
- View issue
10. Issue #6551 (Oct 2024) - "Consider grouping & collapsing identical sequential activities in the trace view and annotating with a count badge"
- Summary: Suggests grouping identical activities to reduce clutter in traces with many similar spans.
- Discussion: No resolution yet, but relevant to managing large numbers of spans.
- View issue
Summary & Recommendations
- Performance for large traces has been a recurring issue, but virtualization and targeted optimizations have been implemented and merged (see PRs #2807, #10308).
- Expand/collapse functionality for spans, especially with many children, has been improved and fixed in recent releases (see PR #8771, #8909, #9474, and issues #8731, #8799, #9434).
- If you are experiencing slow expand/collapse with many child spans, ensure you are using Aspire 9.2.1 or later, as several bugs and performance issues have been addressed in these versions.
- Additional usability improvements (like "Collapse all"/"Expand all" and better filtering/grouping) have been requested and implemented, but further enhancements may be ongoing.
If you are still experiencing performance issues with the latest version, it may be worth profiling the UI or opening a new issue with details, as most known problems have been addressed.
Let me know if you need a deeper dive into any specific issue or PR!