Export Performance Issues - Nextedy Documentation

Identify the Bottleneck

Export performance issues in Risksheet primarily stem from cell merging in hierarchical layouts. The export engine must calculate merge boundaries for every merged region in the grid, and this computation grows significantly with document size. Use this decision matrix to identify your specific bottleneck:

Factor	Impact	Mitigation
Cell merging (hierarchical view)	High — primary bottleneck for both Excel and PDF	Switch to Flat table view before exporting
Number of `multiItemLink` columns	High — each cell requires JSON array parsing and label resolution	Reduce visible link columns using saved views
Total row count (500+ rows)	Medium — linear scaling with row count	Split large sheets by FMEA type or component
Server-rendered columns	Medium — requires HTML-to-text conversion per cell	Minimize server-rendered columns in export views
Conditional formatting / cell decorators	Low — CSS evaluation is fast	Minimal impact on export time
Column count	Low — horizontal scaling is manageable	Use `hideColumns` parameter in PDF scripts

Switch to Flat Table View for Export

The most effective optimization is switching to Flat table view before exporting. This eliminates the merge calculation overhead entirely.

Open your Risksheet document
Switch to the Flat table view using the view selector in the toolbar
Trigger the export (Excel or PDF) — the progress toast appears: “Exporting to Excel” or “Exporting to PDF” with an animated progress indicator
Wait for the export to complete and the file to download
Switch back to your preferred hierarchical view after the export completes

Switching from hierarchical view to Flat table view reduced export time from approximately 3 hours to 3-7 minutes in real customer scenarios with large, heavily merged risksheets. Always use Flat table view for large document exports.

The masterMergeOnly property (labeled as flatTable in export diagnostic logs) controls whether the export uses a flat table structure or includes hierarchical merges. Both mergeCacheFlag and masterMergeOnly are logged during export for diagnostics.

Configure Performance Parameters

Enable Module-Only Permissions

Set moduleOnlyPermissions=true at the project level to speed up loading of large sheets. This parameter restricts permission checks to the document module level, avoiding per-item permission evaluation that can be very slow for documents with hundreds of work items.

Enabling moduleOnlyPermissions disables per-item permission checks. If your project relies on fine-grained per-work-item permissions, this optimization may allow users to see or edit items they should not have access to. Verify your permission requirements before enabling.

Prevent Full Page Reload on Save

Set refreshOnSave to false in your sheet configuration to avoid a full page reload after each save operation:

global:
  refreshOnSave: false

This prevents the grid from reloading all data after every save, which is particularly beneficial when editing large sheets with many linked items.

Setting refreshOnSave to false improves save performance but may cause stale link rendering in some scenarios. Links created or modified during the editing session may not reflect their latest state until the page is manually refreshed. Test with your specific configuration before applying broadly.

Reduce Visible Columns Before Exporting

Use saved views to create an export-specific column visibility preset that hides columns not needed in the export output:

Create a saved view with only the columns required for the export
Switch to that view before triggering the export
The export processes only visible columns, reducing per-row processing time

This is especially effective for sheets with many multiItemLink columns, as each requires JSON array parsing and label resolution during export.

Optimize PDF Export

PDF export has additional validation requirements and processing steps beyond Excel export.

Pre-Export Validation

PDF export validates the sheet state before proceeding:

Validation	Behavior When Failed
Unsaved changes (`isDirty()`)	Export is blocked. Save all changes first.
Comparison mode active	Export is blocked. Exit baseline comparison view before exporting.

If the export is blocked, Risksheet displays a validation message explaining which condition failed. Save your changes or exit comparison mode, then retry.

Custom PDF Export Scripts

PDF export uses Velocity templates to generate the export layout. Review your custom pdfscript.js for potential inefficiencies:

Use the hideColumns parameter (comma-separated binding names) to exclude unnecessary columns from the exportMainSheet call. Hidden columns are temporarily removed during export and restored afterward.
Consider using exportSubTable or exportDownstreamTable for focused exports of specific data subsets rather than exporting the entire grid.
The emptyPlaceholder property controls what text appears for null or empty cells. Set this to null (default) to skip rendering empty cells entirely.

Available export scope variables in custom scripts:

Variable	Description
`exporter`	The export engine instance with all export methods
`isInCompare`	Whether comparison mode is active
`compareRevision`	The revision being compared against
`currentRevision`	The current document revision
`showUnchanged`	Whether to display unchanged rows in comparison

Known PDF Export Limitations

Issue	Description	Status
Text truncation for linked elements	Cell height calculation may truncate text for linked elements (hazard, hazardous situation, harm)	Fix planned with highest priority
Text repetition on page breaks	When a risk item spans multiple pages, partial text is repeated on the next page for context	By design, but can confuse reviewers who interpret it as a new risk entry
Risk matrix calculation errors	Risk matrix totals in PDF may not correctly count risks across all severity categories	Under investigation
Table overflow for long text	Tables may not auto-extend for very long text content	Under investigation

PDF export cell height calculation has a known regression that can truncate text for linked elements. This is tracked as a high-priority issue. Check for updates in Risksheet version v25.2.0 and later, which includes optimizations for merged cell processing.

Optimize Excel Export

Excel export processes each cell type individually during the formatting callback. Understanding how each column type is exported helps you identify optimization opportunities:

Column Type	Export Behavior	Performance Notes
Plain text / string	Direct value copy	Fast
Boolean	Converts checkbox to `true`/`false` text	Fast
Item link	Strips HTML markup, outputs plain text	Moderate — HTML parsing per cell
Multi-item link	Parses JSON array of `{id, label}` objects, joins with newlines	Slow — JSON parsing per cell, items with IDs starting with `*` are prefixed
Multi-enum	Resolves enum IDs to display names from configuration, joins with commas	Moderate — lookup per value
Server-rendered	Strips HTML, preserves line breaks from list items	Moderate — HTML processing

The export always includes:

Column headers in bold font at the top of the sheet
Row headers showing system item IDs in bold font
Cell styles (background colors, text colors) preserved from the grid when includeStyles is active

Excel Export Progress Feedback

During export, Risksheet displays a progress toast notification:

Title: “Exporting to Excel”
Message: “Please wait while the file is being generated…”
Behavior: The toast persists until the export completes, then automatically dismisses. A 100ms delay ensures the progress indicator renders before the export engine begins processing.

Version-Specific Improvements

Version	Improvement	Impact
v24.8.5	`moduleOnlyPermissions=true` parameter	Faster loading for large sheets by reducing permission check overhead
v24.8.6	Faster merger for `multiItemLink` columns	Improved merge calculation for sheets with many multi-item link columns
v25.2.0	Optimized merged cell processing for exports	Reduced export time for hierarchically merged sheets

If you are experiencing export performance issues, ensure you are running Risksheet v25.2.0 or later, which includes cumulative performance optimizations for merged cell processing, permission checks, and multi-item link handling.

Verification

After applying performance optimizations:

Switch to Flat table view in the Risksheet toolbar
Optionally, switch to an export-specific saved view to reduce visible columns
Trigger the export and observe the progress indicator (“Exporting to Excel” or “Exporting to PDF”)
Confirm the export completes within minutes, not hours
Open the exported file and verify that all expected data is present

You should now see the export complete significantly faster, with the progress toast displaying briefly before the file downloads. For very large documents (500+ rows with many link columns), expect export times of 3-7 minutes in Flat table view.

​Identify the Bottleneck

​Switch to Flat Table View for Export

​Configure Performance Parameters

​Enable Module-Only Permissions

​Prevent Full Page Reload on Save

​Reduce Visible Columns Before Exporting

​Optimize PDF Export

​Pre-Export Validation

​Custom PDF Export Scripts

​Known PDF Export Limitations

​Optimize Excel Export

​Excel Export Progress Feedback

​Version-Specific Improvements

​Verification

​See Also

Identify the Bottleneck

Switch to Flat Table View for Export

Configure Performance Parameters

Enable Module-Only Permissions

Prevent Full Page Reload on Save

Reduce Visible Columns Before Exporting

Optimize PDF Export

Pre-Export Validation

Custom PDF Export Scripts

Known PDF Export Limitations

Optimize Excel Export

Excel Export Progress Feedback

Version-Specific Improvements

Verification

See Also