Hi Jesse,
Please check the Gateway metadata cache is active or not, if not then please activate the cache.
https://help.sap.com/saphelp_gateway20sp06/helpdata/en/3d/45e259b4bd49e197316cbfd3c7fa8e/content.htm
The last section (Controlling the Metadata cache) tells about activating and de-activating metadata cache.
With Gateway SP09, a new feature 'soft-state' has been introduced. The softstate has been delivered as part of SP05 of SRM UI Addon so you can activate the softstate as per gateway guidelines.
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_gateway20sp09/helpdata/en/f6/5f8e5318e83d27e10000000a44538d/content.htm
Best Regards,
Ankit Jain
