System, method and computer program product for progressive rendering of report results

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein computer instructions capable of being executed to cause a computer system to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, from an intermediate window created by a browser executing on a user device, a request for a report on data that is stored by the computer system;
• determining one or more queries to be executed to generate a set of results for the report;
• executing the one or more queries to generate the set of results for the report, wherein the set of results are capable of being presented as one or more records in a table;
• processing the set of results to generate layout information that specifies width values for columns in the table, wherein the width values are obtained by determining, for each column in the table, a width value that indicates a greatest width of data values in that column;
• apportioning the set of results into a plurality of portions that are stored in a memory of the computer system;
• progressively sending portions of the plurality of portions to the intermediate window as the portions are generated by the computer system, wherein the portions include the layout information, which is usable by the browser to render the width of each column in the table according to the determined width value for that column, wherein the intermediate window is operable to progressively resend, to a display window created by the browser, the portions received from the computer system, and wherein the display window is operable to progressively display the portions, from the intermediate window as they are received, in the table;
• and
• as particular portions of the plurality of portions are progressively sent from the computer system to the intermediate window, the computer system removing the particular portions from the memory.