2008 March

Build a scorecard using new Xcelsius 2008 features

Posted on March 24, 2008 by Ryan Goodman

This week, I combined some new Xcelsius 2008 features to build a cool example that would have been impossible in Xcelsius 4.5. This example was assembled with NO Excel logic required, showing off the power behind some of the new Xcelsius 2008 features.

1. Panel-Set for scrollable content
2. Selector Alerts in a label based menu to create scalable icons
3. Insert filtered range in the label based menu to select multiple records
4. Chart with Dual axis enabled

Download Source Files

The first item I wanted on the screen is a scrollable scorecard that will allow me to scale content easily. To accomplish this, I leveraged the new Panel Container component. Once you drag this component to the canvas, you can insert other components inside the secondary panel’s canvas.

The second item is a label based menu that is situated in the upper left most corner of the panel container component. With Xcelsius 2008, we have alerts for selectors, so I am using this feature coupled with ignore end blanks to create a scalable list of icons without having to manually drag and drop a bunch of icon components. For selector alerts, you define a value for each label, then define alert targets, the same way you do for chart alerts.

The next feature is one of my favorites: Insert Filtered Range, which replaces a need for lots of Excel logic to select a range of data. In the previous version of Xcelsius, the selector insert options restricted you to 1 row at a time. Xcelsius 2008 has a brand new insert option that inserts a filtered range of data. In my example, making a selection will display multiple opportunities. The nice thing about insert filtered rows, is the data does not need to be in ascending order. I strongly recommend that you reverse engineer my example or try this feature out for yourself.

The final feature that I utilized in this example is the dual axis chart feature. With Xcelsius 2008, you can apply a second Y axis with ease compared to the complicated chart layering technique/workaround we used with Xcelsius 4.5. In my example I am plotting a lead count vs probability that the opportunities will close.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

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Posted in Creative Workarounds, New Features, Xcelsius | 1 Comment

Ryan Goodman’s Top 10 Xcelsius 2008 Features

Posted on March 14, 2008 by Ryan Goodman

Here are my top ten new features in Xcelsius 2008 that any Xcelsius developer will be excited about. I highly recommend that you go in and find each one of these. I will certainly post some articles in the upcoming weeks showing you how to use these and tricks to build some cool applications.

1. Xcelsius IDE Interface Revamp with Embedded Spreadsheet
No more re-importing my Excel sheet a million times. And yes, the bindings do hold true if you insert an extra row or column. In addition you can now pin your toolbars which is certainly nice. I had become so accustomed to manually moving my properties window that it almost feels weird to have it in one location. Xcelsius 2008 IDE

2. New Object Browser
With the ability to group and ungroup components just like Photoshop, I will be twice as efficient when I build complex models. I heavily suggest that you spend some time playing with the new object browser. You can drag and drop components in and out of groups and have much more control over the components on the stage.
Xcelsius 2008 Object Browser

3. Copy Paste from 1 Xcelsius instance to another
I am sure marketing won’t bring this one up, but for those of you who have longed for this feature, you can now re-use compilations of components from one XLF to another by simple copying and pasting.

4. Color Scheme Creator
They did an amazing job at letting someone adjust the color scheme at a basic level for non-designers, or in great detail for someone like me who wants to globally control how all components look. The color scheme designer in 4.5 made a mess of things, but the new color scheme creator in Xcelsius 2008 is a thing of beauty!
Xcelsius 2008 Color Scheme Creator

5. Alerts in Selectors
This is an amazing idea and yet another powerful differentiator for how selectors work. What better way to know what to click on then by telling the end user. This feature is only available for the basic selectors, but I already have several good ideas for how I can use this feature. Also, you can now bind your alert thresholds which was a major limitation in 4.5.
Xcelsius 2008 Selector Alerts

6. Panel Container
For the age old problem of not having scrollable content within a dashboard, this is a great way to visually group information together without having to worry about dynamic visibility.
Xcelsius 2008 Panel Container

7. Bindable Default/Selected Value for Selectors
This is more of a power user feature but for those of you who build multi-layer (nested) dashboards, integrate Xcelsius into other applications, or have complex navigation paradigms built in this is a big win for us. I will have several examples on how to leverage this one coming soon. Unfortunately they did not enable this feature for checkboxes or icons. Xcelsius 2008 Bindable Selector Default

8. Data Manager
The data manager is a central location for managing and configuring all connectivity options including Flash Variables, and XML maps. No more digging around for connection options and buttons within your dashboard. Xcelsius feels much more like a dashboard design tool, now that we can manage connectivity from one place. You still do have the option to use a button to refresh from the connectivity folder.
Xcelsius 2008 Data Manager

9. New Connection Trigger Option: “When Value Equals”
For those of you who build complex connected dashboards, this trigger key will now provide all of the flexibility you need to trigger queries based on the value in a cell and not just on change. Those scenarios where you want to trigger queries based on the user or screen are now possible without writing complex logic, or running queries unnecessarily.
Xcelsius 2008 Trigger Key

10. Insert Filtered Rows
Here is a strong tenth best feature for existing Xcelsius designers/developers that fills in a limitation of no “insert range” selector option. The Xcelsius dev team listened to our pains and provided us with a nifty insert filtered range option. I will cover this in more detail in my next article but you need to check this feature out if you hate using lots of Excel logic to lookup multiple rows of data.
Xcelsius 2008 Insert Filtered Rows

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

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Posted in New Features, Xcelsius | 5 Comments

Export Xcelsius to Excel using Xport Wizard

Posted on March 10, 2008 by Ryan Goodman

Here is a step by step walkthrough of how I setup my first example built with Xport Wizard. This is a web service utility that can be used with Xcelsius, and allows you to extract data from your dashboard to formats like Excel and XML. I figured the best idea would be using an existing Xcelsius model from the Xcelsius website. I couldn’t publish the example on my blog because of licensing restrictions for Xcelsius, but you are more than welcome to download the source files and test for yourself.
Download Source Files

Part 1 Defining output data in Xcelsius

In the Xcelsius dashboard, I added an XML data button.
insert component

2. After checking “Send,” I selected 2 ranges of data that I wanted to see in my Excel file.
click send

3. I then clicked “Preview XML” to view, then save the sample XML structure. It is this XML file that Xport Wizard uses as the bridge to define the data structure.

4. In notepad I clicked “Save as” and saved the XML file to my desktop; I know that sometimes, clicking “Preview XML” in Xcelsius will open in your web browser. You can also save the XML from your web browser.

Part 2 Generating the Service in Xport Wizard

5. After launching Xport Wizard in my browser, I clicked “New.”
6. The first screen prompted me for basic information including a name, and output type. I selected Excel and named the service “ryantest2excel”

7. The next screen prompted me for the XML schema. I browsed for the XML file that I saved from Xcelsius, and Xport Wizard imports it right into the application. At this point, Xport Wizard will store and use this XML schema.

8. The next screen allows me to configure properties for my service. In this case I hard-coded the output Excel name, and checked append timestamp so each output excel file will be unique. The nice part about Xport Wizard, is the ability to parameterize the file name, or where the file is output to (relative to Xport Wizard services). The Xport Wizard website has instructions and templates for configuring these options.
properties

9. The next step is to define an output URL variable. This is a variable that Xcelsius will receive once the output file is generated. In this case, I used the default “returnurl.”
return url

10. The next screen allows me to publish the service and get the service URL.
return url

Part 3 Finishing the Xcelsius Configuration

Now when I go back to Xcelsius, I have the two remaining pieces properties to configure in my XML connector before I am complete:

11. The first is the web service URL. We will copy the URL that Xport Wizard provided into the Xcelsius XML connector.

12. The second is the Return URL. When the output file is generated, Xport Wizard will return the absolute path to the Excel/CSV file back to the SWF. We need to declare that variable and bind it to cell so we can launch it from the SWF. By default we used a return URL of “returnurl”. See part 2, step 9.

12. Now that I have my web service setup and linked to my dashboard, I need a method for launching the Excel file once the URL is returned to me. To launch the file, I imported a URL component and bound it to the same cell as the “returnurl”. In this case we bound it to cell J1.

13. Finally I set the URL trigger cell to the same return URL cell, changed the XML data button title, hid the URL button and Vuala! My dashboard is enabled to export the data to Excel.

This entire process including me taking screen prints and writing this article took me less than 45min… Much better than writing web services!

Issues Found
When importing XML to Xport Wizard, the XML file can not contain some special characters. In this case I found that “&” provides and invalid XML format error. So I modified the XML file. I incuded it in the source files download.

For more information go to the Xport Wizard product page: Xport Wizard

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

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Posted in Connectivity, Xcelsius, Xcelsius Add-Ons | 1 Comment