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It is easy to set up complex table designs that can produce extremely large tables. As Reportal is a shared environment and the tables generate real-time results by running queries directly against the database, some safeguards have been included in the system. These will prevent users from inadvertently causing excessive strain on the server, thereby affecting all other users.
Two types of timeouts are built into the system: one occurs if a single query takes too long, the other occurs if all the queries needed to compute the entire table would take too long. When working on single questions, you are usually able to compute all the answers in one query. When working on grid and multi questions however, several queries are needed to compute the results of the table.
Note: These timeouts only apply for queries performed directly on the survey database. If you use BitStream files instead, no timeout restrictions will apply.
If you receive a timeout message, try to reduce the number of queries and their complexity by:
- Reducing the number of variables in the table.
- Reducing the answer lists by using masking.
- Trying to avoid nesting several items on top of each other.
If you receive a timeout message on a report page, and the report page has several tables, you could also try to remove one or more of the tables from that page and set it up on a separate page.