Report Job Handler

(5 posts) (2 voices)
  1. nsepetys, Member

    Hello myDBR Representative,

    My understanding of how myDBR works is fairly limited so please excuse my lack of expertise on the framework when I ask the following question. Is it possible to integrate a job handler into the myDBR framework so that report generation requests can be handled by a service and then delivered to the client's session when the job/report generation has been complete? That way a user can potentially queue reports as they browse for more. I understand that we can create crons or report automation that can run on the side to email users the final product on a scheduled basis but is an on-demand, client-serving service that generates reports in the background a feasible addition to the myDBR framework?

    - Noah

  2. myDBR Team, Key Master

    Noah,
    what is the use case you are trying to solve with background processing?

    Usually the background processing is not feasibel solution as user navigates through the data using linked reports, so reports and parameters are dynamically requested.

    If you have bing / slow reports, the first step is to optimize the reports. If you still have slow reports, you can open reports into different windows/tabs while waiting slow ones to complete.

    The reports are by default HTML/CSS/JavaScript reports executed both server and client. Background processing would work on Excel/PDF reports but is not that suitable for HTML/CSS/JavaScript reports.

    --
    myDBR Team

  3. nsepetys, Member

    There are large reports that have lots of data in them that make the report experience a little slow. There is possibility of improvement on our end but ultimately some processes don't really work to maximize the client's time as efficiently as I think they can. One specific example is an excel report that completes all the queries in under 90 seconds yet the export never materializes (even after 10 minutes). While I understand the amount of resources required to support large exports would be much greater I think if we're creating great analytics on the fly it would be well worth it.

    I would say that I am not sure if a background service for all formats can be done, period, but I know that it is possible with other platforms. The last company I worked for developed an in-house solution that had reports generated in the background while the user could browse and potentially queue up more reports (something that I believe falls under the "asynchronous task" bucket). The available report types were excel, pdf, and html.

    If you're flat out saying this cannot happen, then it cannot happen. But if there's a glimmer of hope that this could be done I think it would make for a sleek and seamless experience that would add some great value to myDBR (and reduce frustrations with page time-outs).

    Thanks for your consideration,
    Noah

    PS- I think you know where I am coming from but this google developers page better articulates the kind of framework addition that I think would be really neat.

  4. myDBR Team, Key Master

    Noah,
    for sure the server can execute the report in background and notify user when the execution has completed. This is not currently a feature of myDBR, but we can add it to the wish list.

    For now you can achieve pretty much the same thing when you open the report in new window and continue browsing in another. The report will complete when it's done in another window.

    Excel exports can be slow on large datasets as libary being used requires lot of resources from the server. Optimizations to the library and arrival of PHP7 will help on this.

    --
    myDBR Team

  5. nsepetys, Member

    Thank you!


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