Yellowfin allows you to export reports to Excel via XLSX and CSV.
CSV's are simple plain text files, so the formatting options, charts will not come through, this also usually means there is low memory consumption. However XLSX supports a range of formats and images which means the amount of memory needed can drastically increase (based on the YF report itself). As of of 7.4.8 Yellowfin now allows you to change how XLSX exports are handled
How the export to XLSX normally works
When exporting to XLSX Yellowfin will run the report query and hold the data in memory, at which point it will render this data into excel. This process is not as simple as copying the data to excel as there are multiple factors make this more complex, such as the use of analytic functions, suppressing duplicates, charts, etc. Depending on the size and complexity of your reports you may find that the speed of export may vary.
What is 'low memory' option for XLSX exports?
This option allows Yellowfin to use a different export renderer (SXSSF API) which can drastically improve performance. While this option can boost XLSX export performance, specific aspects of the excel render are not available. These are listed below in the limitations. Please note when using this configuration option, it will apply to all reports.
How to enable 'low memory' option for XLS exports
In order to enable the low memory option, you will need to run the following against the Yellowfin Configuration Database:
INSERT INTO configuration VALUES(1, 'System','REPORTLOWMEMORYEXPORT','ON');
Please note, if using client orgs, you will need to insert this row for each org by replacing the '1' with the ClientOrgId.
Limitations of the 'low memory' option
- Cell width formats will not not be exported.
- Chart borders will not be exported.
If you have any questions, or running into issues relating to connections, please raise a ticket with our support team.
Regards,
The Yellowfin Support Team.