Using collections and experiencing slow response

Question

I am experiencing slow response when using htmldb_collection. I was hoping someone might point me in another direction or point to where the delay may be occurring.
First a synopsis of what I am using these collections for. The main collections are used in order to enable the users to work with multiple rows of data (each agreement may have multiple inbound and outbound tiered rates). These collections, OBTCOLLECTION and IBTCOLLECTION, seem to be fine. The problem arises from the next set of collections.
OBTCOLLECTION and IBTCOLLECTION each contain a field for city, product, dial code group and period. Each of these fields contains a semi-colon delimited string. When the user chooses to view either the outbound tiers (OBTCOLLECTION) or the inbound tiers (IBTCOLLECTION), I generate four collections based on these four fields, parsing the delimited strings, for each tier (record in the OBT or IBT collection). Those collections are used as the bases for multiple select shuttles when the user edits an individual tier.
Here is the collection code for what I am doing.
When the user chooses an agreement to work with, by clicking on an edit link, they are sent to page 17 (as you see referenced in the code). That page has the on-demand process below triggered on load, after footer.
-- This process Loads the collections used
-- for the Inbound and Outbound tier details
     -- OBTCOLLECTION
     -- IBTCOLLECTION
-- It is an on-demand process called on load (after footer) of page 17 --
-- OUTBOUND TIER COLLECTION --
     if htmldb_collection.collection_exists( 'OBTCOLLECTION') = TRUE then
         htmldb_collection.delete_collection(p_collection_name => 'OBTCOLLECTION' );
     end if;
     htmldb_collection.create_collection_from_query(
         p_collection_name => 'OBTCOLLECTION',
         p_query           => 'select ID, AGREEMENT_ID, FIXED_MOBILE_ALL,
                          OF_TYPE,TIER, START_MIN, END_MIN,
                                         REVERT_TO, RATE,CURRENCY,
                                         PENALTY_RATE, PENALTY_CURR,
                   PRODUCT,CITY, DIAL_CODE_GROUP, PERIOD,
                    to_char(START_DATE,''MM/DD/YYYY''),
                                         to_char(END_DATE,''MM/DD/YYYY''),
                                         MONTHLY,EXCLUDED,
                   ''O'' original_flag
                      from outbound_tiers
                      where agreement_id = '''||:P17_ID ||'''
                      order by FIXED_MOBILE_ALL, ID',
         p_generate_md5    => 'YES');
-- INBOUND TIER COLLECTION --
     if htmldb_collection.collection_exists( 'IBTCOLLECTION') = TRUE then
         htmldb_collection.delete_collection(p_collection_name => 'IBTCOLLECTION' );
     end if;
     htmldb_collection.create_collection_from_query(
         p_collection_name => 'IBTCOLLECTION',
         p_query           => 'select ID, AGREEMENT_ID, FIXED_MOBILE_ALL,
                          OF_TYPE,TIER, START_MIN, END_MIN,
                                         REVERT_TO, RATE,CURRENCY,
                                         PENALTY_RATE, PENALTY_CURR,
                          PRODUCT,CITY, DIAL_CODE_GROUP, PERIOD,
                          to_char(START_DATE,''MM/DD/YYYY''),
                                         to_char(END_DATE,''MM/DD/YYYY''),
                                         MONTHLY,EXCLUDED,
                          ''O'' original_flag
                      from inbound_tiers
                      where agreement_id = '''||:P17_ID ||'''
                      order by FIXED_MOBILE_ALL, ID',
         p_generate_md5    => 'YES');
     commit;The tables each of these collections is created from are each about 2000 rows.
This part is working well enough.
Next, when the user chooses to view the tier information (either inbound or Outbound) they navigate to either of two pages that have the on-demand process below triggered on load, after header.
-- This process Loads all of the collections used
--  for the multiple select shuttles --
     -- DCGCOLLECTION
     -- CITYCOLLECTION
     -- PRODCOLLECTION
     -- PRDCOLLECTION
-- It is  an on-demand process called on load (after footer)  --
DECLARE
   dcg_string long;
   dcg varchar2(100);
   city_string long;
   the_city varchar2(100);
   prod_string long;
   prod varchar2(100);
   prd_string long;
   prd varchar2(100);
   end_char varchar2(1);
   n number;
   CURSOR shuttle_cur IS
      SELECT seq_id obt_seq_id,
             c013 product,
             c014 city,
             c015 dial_code_group,
             c016 period
      FROM htmldb_collections
      WHERE collection_name = 'OBTCOLLECTION';
   shuttle_rec shuttle_cur%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
-- CREATE OR TRUNCATE DIAL CODE GROUP COLLECTION FOR MULTIPLE SELECT SHUTTLES --
     htmldb_collection.create_or_truncate_collection(
     p_collection_name => 'DCGCOLLECTION');
-- CREATE OR TRUNCATE CITY COLLECTION FOR MULTIPLE SELECT SHUTTLES --
     htmldb_collection.create_or_truncate_collection(
     p_collection_name => 'CITYCOLLECTION');
-- CREATE OR TRUNCATE PRODUCT COLLECTION FOR MULTIPLE SELECT SHUTTLES --
     htmldb_collection.create_or_truncate_collection(
     p_collection_name => 'PRODCOLLECTION');
-- CREATE OR TRUNCATE PERIOD COLLECTION FOR MULTIPLE SELECT SHUTTLES --
     htmldb_collection.create_or_truncate_collection(
     p_collection_name => 'PRDCOLLECTION');
-- LOAD COLLECTIONS BY LOOPING THROUGH CURSOR.
     OPEN shuttle_cur;
     LOOP
        FETCH shuttle_cur INTO shuttle_rec;
        EXIT WHEN shuttle_cur%NOTFOUND;
        -- DIAL CODE GROUP --
        dcg_string := shuttle_rec.dial_code_group ;
        end_char := substr(dcg_string,-1,1);
        if end_char != ';' then
           dcg_string := dcg_string || ';' ;
        end if;
        LOOP
           EXIT WHEN dcg_string is null;
           n := instr(dcg_string,';');
           dcg := ltrim( rtrim( substr( dcg_string, 1, n-1 ) ) );
           dcg_string := substr( dcg_string, n+1 );
           if length(dcg) > 1 then
            htmldb_collection.add_member(
               p_collection_name => 'DCGCOLLECTION',
               p_c001 => shuttle_rec.obt_seq_id,
               p_c002 => dcg,
               p_generate_md5 => 'NO');
           end if;
        END LOOP;
        -- CITY --
        city_string := shuttle_rec.city ;
        end_char := substr(city_string,-1,1);
        if end_char != ';' then
           city_string := city_string || ';' ;
        end if;
        LOOP
           EXIT WHEN city_string is null;
           n := instr(city_string,';');
           the_city := ltrim( rtrim( substr( city_string, 1, n-1 ) ) );
           city_string := substr( city_string, n+1 );
           if length(the_city) > 1 then
            htmldb_collection.add_member(
               p_collection_name => 'CITYCOLLECTION',
               p_c001 => shuttle_rec.obt_seq_id,
               p_c002 => the_city,
               p_generate_md5 => 'NO');
           end if;
        END LOOP;
        -- PRODUCT --
        prod_string := shuttle_rec.product ;
        end_char := substr(prod_string,-1,1);
        if end_char != ';' then
           prod_string := prod_string || ';' ;
        end if;
        LOOP
           EXIT WHEN prod_string is null;
           n := instr(prod_string,';');
           prod := ltrim( rtrim( substr( prod_string, 1, n-1 ) ) );
           prod_string := substr( prod_string, n+1 );
           if length(prod) > 1 then
            htmldb_collection.add_member(
               p_collection_name => 'PRODCOLLECTION',
               p_c001 => shuttle_rec.obt_seq_id,
               p_c002 => prod,
               p_generate_md5 => 'NO');
           end if;
        END LOOP;
        -- PERIOD --
        prd_string := shuttle_rec.period ;
        end_char := substr(prd_string,-1,1);
        if end_char != ';' then
           prd_string := prd_string || ';' ;
        end if;
        LOOP
           EXIT WHEN prd_string is null;
           n := instr(prd_string,';');
           prd := ltrim( rtrim( substr( prd_string, 1, n-1 ) ) );
           prd_string := substr( prd_string, n+1 );
           if length(prd) > 1 then
            htmldb_collection.add_member(
               p_collection_name => 'PRDCOLLECTION',
               p_c001 => shuttle_rec.obt_seq_id,
               p_c002 => prd,
               p_generate_md5 => 'NO');
           end if;
        END LOOP;
     END LOOP;
     CLOSE shuttle_cur;
    commit;
END;Creating these collections from the initial collection is taking way too long. The page is rendered after about 22 seconds (when tier collection has 2 rows) and 10 minutes worst case (when the tier collection has 56 rows).
Thank you in advance for any advice you may have.

Answer 1

Try to instrument/profile your code by putting timing statements after each operation. This way you can tell which parts are taking the most time and address them.