Creating reports and dashboards | Stimulsoft community forum

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in how other developers organize their reporting workflow when working with PHP applications.

When a report contains several data sources, grouped records, calculated totals, and a lot of rows, keeping everything readable and fast can become a challenge. A report may work fine with a small dataset but take much longer to render when the amount of data increases.

I'm curious about a few things:

Do you usually prepare and filter the data in PHP before passing it to the report, or handle most of the work inside the report designer?

What is your approach to grouping records and calculating totals without making the report too complicated?

Are there any settings or techniques that have helped you reduce rendering time when exporting large reports to PDF?

I'd also be interested in hearing how you structure report templates so that they remain easy to update when the application or database changes.

Any practical examples or suggestions from people using Stimulsoft Reports.PHP would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hello,

Thank you for your question. Here are some general recommendations for Stimulsoft Reports.PHP:
1. Data preparation: Filter and aggregate the data on the database side (SQL or stored procedures) and pass only the required columns and rows to the report. Use report variables or data source parameters for filters instead of filtering in the template.
2. Grouping and totals: Use Group Header/Footer bands with built-in aggregate functions (Sum, Count, Avg) in the footers. If the logic gets complex, move it into the query or a calculated column.
3. Large PDF exports: Reduce the amount of data, avoid unnecessary Can Grow, Shift, and complex expressions on many components, and use report caching. Use the Reports.PHP caching options in the viewer to avoid rebuilding the report on every request.
4. Maintainability: Keep one template per purpose, use the data dictionary instead of hard-coded queries, use styles for a consistent look, and keep the connection settings in your PHP code or a config file.

For details, see the Stimulsoft Reports.PHP documentation.

Thank you.