With Dynamics 365 Business Central online, there are performance considerations that need to be taken into account.
Currently, both Word and RDL built-in layouts are rendered in the same application domain process when they run with SAVEASPDF or SAVEAS statements.
Since RDL layouts might enable some external code artifacts that may potentially affect data within the same application domain, it has been decided to run every custom RDL report layout in isolated mode. It's worth noticing that if you develop a report and declare DefaultLayout as RDL and the RDLLayout property, this is considered a built-in layout and should render in the same application domain.
Word layouts, no matter whether they are built-in or custom-made, do not run in isolation.
Enabling application domain isolation for custom RDL layouts provides a more secure and reliable processing environment. However, the drawback is that it could considerably increase the rendering time.
Whenever you develop RDL reports for Dynamics 365 Business Central online, you must also test performance with the SAVEASPDF or SAVEAS statements within an online sandbox or a Docker-contained sandbox with the customsettings.config file server parameter, ReportAppDomainIsolation, set to true.
Other performance considerations that are valid for both Word and RDL report layouts are based on dataset optimization.
These are the equations to keep in mind when developing the data structure of the AL report. Let's consider that the dataset is an in-memory table (X axis = columns and Y axis = rows):
Smaller Dataset = Better Performance
Smaller Dataset = Reduce X axis (columns) + Reduce Y axis (rows)
Better Performance = Optimize (reduce) the number of columns in Dataset + Optimize (reduce) the number of records processed in DataItems
You can use the following links to optimize standard reports or your own custom reports:
- https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nav/2014/03/09/rdlc-report-and-performance-in-microsoft-dynamics-nav/
- https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nav/2016/05/20/rdlc-report-and-performance-in-microsoft-dynamics-nav-2015-and-2016/
- https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nav/2015/03/17/a-couple-of-rdlc-performance-optimization-tips/