How many Switchboard widgets can I use?

Users with larger numbers of open widgets within the Switchvox Switchboard may notice improper behavior of those widgets that depend on real-time data such as Queues widgets or Calls widgets. Improper behavior includes incorrect, missing or delayed data, or failure of Switchboard to respond to the user's input.

Answer

When these situations occur, it is most frequently associated with the use of more widgets than the end user's computer, such as their laptop or desktop computer, possesses resources to handle in a real-time fashion. Because the end user's laptop or desktop computer can't process events reliably, unpredictable behavior is experienced. This is not a function of the available computing power of the Switchvox system itself, rather the computing power available on the end user's laptop or desktop computer that is running the Switchboard application and the widgets.

Sangoma is not able to provide specific guidance on the numbers of acceptable widgets due to the vast array of variables that occur on an end user's computer. Among others, this array includes the end user's network, the end user's browser type and version, and the browser's performance on the end user's computing device as it contends for resources with other system applications. The browser itself is responsible for rendering the events received from Switchvox into what the end user sees. If the browser isn't able to access sufficient resources from the end user's computing device, the only solution is to provide the end user with a more powerful computing device (a laptop or desktop with more available RAM and/or a more powerful CPU), to reduce the computations the browser is performing (lessen the number of open widgets inside of the end user's Switchboard instance), or to increase the available network bandwidth between the end user's computer and the Switchvox system.