Time Reports in JIRA Cloud non-functional - hangs with large dataset

[DavidR]

I have used the Time Reports regularly in the past to generate an excel file on a monthly basis for finance team with all the time entries over a 30 day period (it generates slightly over 4000 rows of time entries in the excel file). This month is the first time I'm using the "new format" for the report, and it is non-functional - the page becomes unresponsive and no report is displayed. Here is the information from my instance to reproduce:

1) JIRA Cloud (csidentity.atlassian.net) 2) Time Reports Plugin Version 1.1.5-AC and License SEN-2574678 3) Report parameters: a) Report Type: Timesheet b) Filter or Project: Blank (I want all projects picked up in the report) c) Search for User: all users checkbox is checked d) Groups: Blank e) Start Date: 2016-04-26 f) End Date: 2016-05-25 g) Show Weekends box is checked h) Reporting Day: Blank i) Group by Field: Blank j) Collapse by Field Group box is unchecked k) Additional Fields: Epic Name and Task Type (custom field) l) Sum subtasks box is unchecked

The only workaround I seem to be able to find is to limit the report to a single project (we have over two dozen) and generate a report from there - this seems to reduce the number of time entry records to an amount the plugin can handle. This is very tedious and requires me to then merge dozens of excel files together.

Any help is appreciated - if this issue cannot be resolved then we have no business case to continue using this plugin.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi David,

I've just made it possible to do excel export before report is displayed, because I think the problem lays in rendering big html table. Please let me know if it helps.

Thank you.

[DavidR]

Hi @Andriy - Thanks for making the change, when will the change be pushed out to our instance of JIRA (it's still showing as Version 1.1.5-AC currently). Is it scheduled nightly?

I tested it this morning to try and run the same report I tried last week and unfortunately the page still just "hangs" and times out. I can continue to test once I know our instance has been updated with your coded changes.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi David,

Version number is not updated, changes are instantly applied. So you have to click Excel icon before you click View Report. Does it work?

Thank you.

[DavidR]

Hi @Andriy Thanks for the quick reply. The Excel icon is available, yes, but clicking on it just causes the icon to disappear and then the page to hang. Eventually the icon reappears but no file has been generated.

Clicking the Excel icon does work with a smaller data set (if I limit the criteria to just one project, as I did before) - an excel file is generated without displaying the HTML table. But larger data sets still cause the report to fail, no file is generated and the page times out.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi David,

Well, then sorry, I can't do anything about it so far. But I keep overall performance problem in mind and trying to find solution.

Thank you.

[DavidR]

Thanks Andriy - I have a month before I need to generate this report again, so hopefully you can find a resolution before then. This is a very useful report for us, but if it requires me to merge together multiple spreadsheets to get the same data we had before from a single, easily generated file (from the older version of the plugin), it loses it's business value to us.

Please keep me updated if you are able to find a resolution.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi David,

I'm a bit in doubt where a problem resides. There 2 things left:

a) JIRA does not respond with big dataset for longer period

b) Browser fails to process big dataset.

Could you please check Network tab, in Browser Javascript console, and see whether /search requests are successful for the case when report generation fails?

Thank you.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Duplicate of #896.

[DavidR]

Hi @azhdanov - I've tried to run the report again with the Developer Tools --> Network Tab --> JS Console open to generate the logs so that you can further diagnose. Here's what I did:

1. With my report parameters set (one month of time entries with two custom fields, all users) I clicked on the Excel Icon first. As before the page became unresponsive after 40-50 seconds and the report failed to generate. I have attached the HAR file with the detail from the logs in the "Click Excel Icon First" file that I have attached.
2. After refreshing the page, and with my report parameters set as above, I clicked on the "View Report" button first (ignoring the Excel icon for now). After a delay of about 15-20 seconds, the HTML view of the report loaded with over 28 pages of data. I then tried clicking on the Excel icon to download this information, but I had the same result as #1 above - the page became unresponsive after 40-50 seconds and the report failed to generate. I have attached the HAR file with the detail from the logs in the "Click View Report First" file I have attached.

This is an improvement - I can get the HTML page view of the report to load in a reasonable amount of time. The Excel generation process, however, remains unresponsive. Let me know if you need anything further.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi David,

Thank you for update, I'm trying to figure out how to improve performance of export functionality, but nothing promising so far, problem is that it's static add-on, so data is generated client side, and looks like not all browsers can handle big data sets. You may try Chrome, if not yet, it used to work better than other browsers.

Thank you.

[DavidR]

Hi Andriy - I appreciate your efforts to keep looking for a performance solution. I actually only use Chrome as my primary browser and that's where I have encountered the performance issue. But your response prompted me to test other browsers to see if there is a difference in performance.

There is a glimmer of hope - when I try using Firefox after 30 seconds I get an "unresponsive script" error message - clicking on "continue" from this error message results in the report generating after about another 20-30 seconds. The excel export flle contains all of the expected records (4000+). This surprises me because generally speaking Chrome is usually a better performer.

When I tried to generate the report using IE, I didn't get an error message at all - just a prompt to download the file after about 20 seconds. Again, surprising that IE would outpeform Chrome!

So for now, my workaround will be using a different browser to generate the file I need. Not sure if this helps your research at all, but at least I now have a mechanism to generate the file I need. Now if you would only add in the "Epic Link" field back to the report (it existed previously and was heavily used by us) we would be perfect . ;-)

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi David,

Wow, that's great info! So I've applied the logic used for IE to all browsers, please let me know if it makes any difference in Chrome or Firefox if possible. Note, you need to reload add-on page.

And I will work on support for Epic Link next week hopefully.

Thank you.

[DavidR]

Hi Andriy - thanks for your note. I re-tested the three browsers this morning and here are my findings:

1) Chrome - Success! I was able to successfully generate a large dataset excel file in about 20-25 seconds. So whatever logic changes you made work better than the original implementation. My only suggestion (and it's a minor point) is to provide some kind of "spinner" so that the user knows that the application is working (the page appears static currently which may prompt users to refresh the page and try again before the process is completed).

2) Firefox - It was a similar outcome from my last test, with some changes. After hitting the excel icon, the page alternated between a regular static page and a "page not responsive" error message (which didn't happen before). The "unresponsive script" error message did appear after the page was unresponsive at least 3 times, and clicking "continue" on the unresponsive script error message generated the file after about 30-40 seconds. So a little bit of a degradation in performance for Firefox, but the file is generated if you are patient.

3) IE - no change from before. The excel file is generated without the page becoming unresponsive, and appears in about 10-15 seconds, the quickest of the three browsers.

Thanks for looking into the Epic Link as well. It's a very useful field for us.

Let me know if you need any more feedback. The tweaks you have made are definitely improving performance.