Note about WRL Performance

The WRL application itself only displays information gathered from various databases. While the WRL does add some overhead compared to running a report from your computer, it is generally not the slowest part of the whole transaction, the source database is. The WRL sends a query to a DB to gather data and then waits for the data to be returned before the report can be displayed. If you get a page timeout, it is usually because the database took too long to gather the data. There are some things you can do to get around this problem.

For long running reports, let them run until they time out or the report is displayed. Closing the report window and restarting the report only makes things worse. When you close the report window, the DB continues to gather data, the query isn’t canceled. Starting another report creates another query on the DB that is competing with the old one for resources.
The ODS is the most used database for reports. This database is heavily used between 9 AM and 4 PM. You will have the most luck with long running reports outside of these hours.
Use the WRL scheduling feature to schedule the report to run during off hours when there is less activity.
Scheduled reports can be viewed by looking at the report’s history. Viewing the report history does not rerun the database query so viewing old reports is very fast.
Make sure to use parameters that result in the lowest amount of records retrieved. For example if you only need a month’s worth of data, use the report parameters to narrow the report to the month you need.
Save or print reports that you use frequently. For example, if you only need to run a report once a week or month, then save that report as a PDF file and refer to the PDF until you need updated data.

These tips will not only help you, but everybody that uses the WRL.

The links below will send you to the WRL help pages.

Go here for help on the WRL.

Go here for help in scheduling a report.

Go here for help in viewing a reports history.