Report Generating from PHP (for Buyocat)

[roopurt18]

The quick version:  I'd like to provide reporting in our PHP software, lots of it.  On our server product (MS Visual Foxpro), we provide a standard set of reports.  We frequently receive requests for new reports or slight variations on existing reports, but these requests typically come in one client at a time.  Basically, Client A sees report Y, which was created for Client B; Client A says "Report Y would be great if only it provided ..."  So we create a new report Z for Client A and release it into the software.  All reporting in our Foxpro product has to be done through programming, which means a lot of hours spent writing reports and less hours improving or maintaining the software.  This is what I'm trying to avoid in our PHP application, which is used by the same clients with the same frequent demand for new or modified reports.

 

I could spend a significant amount of time programming a report writer in PHP, but why reinvent the wheel?  Searching the web I found BIRT, an eclipse based open-source reporting solution.  This looks like the ideal candidate to solve this problem.  I can create the reports locally, upload them to the server, and then expose them to our clients through a PHP interface.  The down-side is BIRT is Java-based so I have to set up a Java application server on our VPS.  I started this thread on that topic:

http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php/topic,151873.0.html

 

I'm running heap memory errors which are causing the JVM to be unable to start.  Looking into that, it appears there can be some issues in trying to run a JVM on a VPS.  According to the BIRT installation instructions, I can have PHP interact with the Java classes directly (possibly through PHP - Java bridge), or I can make requests to an application server such as Tomcat.  In either case, I need the JVM to start.

 

So unless Buyocat or anyone else has an alternative solution to the problem, it may be time to order a dedicated host or to run a second VPS without apache / mysql / etc and use it as the application server.