How to generate a relatively long report?

Question

symfony

Good afternoon.
So - I form an Excel file on the server and immediately send it to the browser. Now the requests are not heavy, the file is small and it works. But sooner or later the wait will exceed the timeout.
This is the question - how to generate such reports correctly?
Now the project is on a symphony, but I have already done this before - as I understood it myself. That's how it was.
By clicking on the link, he sent a request for formation, where the path was written to the session where the generated file would be saved and sent requests until such a file appeared, as it appeared, he gave the file.

<a href="/" class="download-report">
    <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-download-alt" aria-hidden="true"></span>
    Загрузить таблицу
</a>

$('.download-report').click(function (e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    waitingDialog.show();
    $.get('start_gnerate_programs_info_report');
    var download_interval = setInterval(function () {
        $.get('is_programs_info_report_ready', function (is_programs_info_report_ready) {
            if (is_programs_info_report_ready == 'yes') {
                waitingDialog.hide();
                clearInterval(download_interval);
                location.href = 'get_programs_info_report';
            } else if (is_programs_info_report_ready != 'no') {
                clearInterval(download_interval);
                waitingDialog.hide();
            }
        });
    }, 3000);
});

class ProgramsInfoReportController
{
    /**
     * @param PDO $PDO
     */
    public function startGenerateProgramsInfoReportAction(PDO $PDO)
    {
        $generation_start_time = time();
        $file_location = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/tmp/' . $generation_start_time . '.xlsx';
        $_SESSION['programs_info_report'] = $file_location;
        session_write_close();
...
        $this->generateExcelFile($programs_info, $file_location);
    }

    private function generateExcelFile($programs_info, $file_location)
    {
...
        $writer->save($file_location);
    }

    public function isProgramsInfoReportReadyAction()
    {
        if (isset($_SESSION['programs_info_report'])) {
            if (file_exists($_SESSION['programs_info_report'])) {
                echo 'yes';
            } else {
                echo 'no';
            }
        } else {
            echo 'error';
        }
    }

    public function getProgramsInfoReportAction()
    {
        $file_name = 'programs_info.xlsx';

        if (isset($_SESSION['programs_info_report']) && (file_exists($_SESSION['programs_info_report']))) {
            $file_location = $_SESSION['programs_info_report'];
            header("Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet");
            header("Content-Length:" . filesize($file_location));
            header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file_name");
            header('Pragma: no-cache');
            readfile($file_location);
            unlink($file_location);
            unset($_SESSION['programs_info_report']);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

everything is as it was done + a link to the mail / to the memerzone
or pre-generation