Engine Events

The report generator supports events that provide the ability to perform necessary operations before certain actions—both on the client-side JavaScript, including the Node.js platform, and on the PHP server-side.

To trigger an event on the client-side JavaScript, you need to add the name of the JavaScript function defined in the current HTML template to the event. If there’s no HTML template, or when generating or exporting a report on the server-side using the Node.js platform, instead of the function name, the event should be assigned the function itself as a string or lines of code. The event arguments will be passed in the function parameters or in a pre-defined args variable, which can be used in the event code.

To trigger an event on the PHP server-side, you need to add the PHP function itself, previously defined in the code, to the event. Assigning an anonymous PHP function to the event is also allowed. The event arguments will be passed in the function parameters.

You can add any number of functions, both client-side and server-side, to a single event. In this case, you need to use the special append() method instead of assigning a function, and pass the function as a parameter. The event handler will group the functions by type and execute them in the order they were added.

Here’s an example of different ways to add functions of various types to an event:

index.php

<?php
    use Stimulsoft\Events\StiDataEventArgs;
    use Stimulsoft\Events\StiVariablesEventArgs;
    use Stimulsoft\Report\StiReport;
    
    function prepareVariables(StiVariablesEventArgs $args) {
        $variables = $args->variables;
    };
    
    $report = new StiReport();
    $report->onPrepareVariables->append(prepareVariables);
    $report->onPrepareVariables->append('prepareVariables');
    $report->onBeginProcessData = function(StiDataEventArgs $args) {
        $args->connectionString = 'Server=localhost;Database=test;uid=root;password=******;';
    };
    
    $report->onBeforeRender = 'args.report.dictionary.clear();'; 
    $report->onAfterRender = 'afterRender';
    
    $report->loadFile('reports/Variables.mrt');
    $report->render();
?>

...

<script>
    function prepareVariables(args) {
        let variables = args.variables;
    }
    
    function afterRender(args) {
        alert("The report rendering is completed.");
    }
</script>

Depending on the event, it can be triggered on both the client-side JavaScript and the PHP server-side simultaneously, or only on the client-side JavaScript, or only on the PHP server-side. This is due to the architecture of the components—the report generator uses a JavaScript core for building and exporting reports, which operates on the client-side, while server-side PHP code is used for data handling. These two components do not have direct access to each other, so events work separately, and data transfer is handled by the event handler. The description of each event will specify which type can be used. A detailed description of the event handler and usage examples can be found in the Event Handler section.

Infformation

All events that work on the client-side JavaScript also work on the Node.js server-side since the same JavaScript report core is used in that case.

The report generator supports the following events:

• onDatabaseConnect
• onBeforeRender
• onAfterRender
• onBeginProcessData
• onEndProcessData
• onPrepareVariables

onDatabaseConnect

[-] JavaScript [+] PHP

The event is triggered before connecting to the database after all parameters have been received. A detailed description and usage examples can be found in the SQL Data Adapter Connections section. The table below lists the properties passed in the event arguments on the PHP server-side:

onBeforeRender

[+] JavaScript [-] PHP

The event is triggered before the report is generated. A detailed description and usage examples can be found in the Rendering Report section.

The table below lists the properties passed in the event arguments on the client-side JavaScript:

The table below lists the properties passed in the event arguments on the PHP server-side:

onAfterRender

[+] JavaScript [-] PHP

The event is triggered after the report is generated. A detailed description and usage examples can be found in the Rendering Report section.

The table below lists the properties passed in the event arguments on the client-side JavaScript:

onBeginProcessData

The event is triggered before requesting the data necessary for building the report. Detailed descriptions and usage examples can be found in the Connecting Data Files and Connecting SQL Data Adapters sections.

The table below lists the properties passed in the event arguments on the client-side JavaScript:

In the table below, you can find the list of event handler arguments on the PHP server-side.

onEndProcessData

The event is triggered after data is loaded but before the report is generated. Detailed descriptions and usage examples can be found in the Connecting Data Files and Connecting SQL Data Adapters sections.

The table below lists the properties passed in the event arguments on the client-side JavaScript:

In the table below, you can find the list of the event handler arguments on the PHP server-side.

onPrepareVariables

The event is triggered before report generation after the report variables have been prepared. Detailed descriptions and usage examples can be found in the Working with Report Variables section.

The table below lists the properties passed in the event arguments on the client-side JavaScript:

In the table below you can find the list of the event handler arguments on the PHP server-side: