The availability of a Google Maps mashup for Xcelsius presents an exciting new avenue for using maps as a navigation paradigm for dashboards. While the Centigon Solutions plugin is a nice step in the right direction, this Beta release requires a few steps before dragging and dropping the component onto the canvas. You can obtain a copy from the Centigon Solutions website:
http://www.centigonsolutions.com/components/googlemap.html

Down Source Files

Once you add the component to the canvas, you can use the following best practices for each property.

1. Sign up for a Google Maps API key
You need a Google Map API key to use this component. This means the same Google licensing and terms of use apply even inside of Xcelsius. Once you obtain your API key, paste it into your spreadsheet, then bind it within the properties sheet.

*If you try to paste the API key directly into the properties sheet, the map will not work when you publish the SWF. Make sure to bind the API key property to the spreadsheet.

2. Convert your regions or addresses to Longitude/Latitude.
Unfortunately, the first version of the GMaps Plugin does not include links to a Geocode service, which would usually convert addresses, cities, etc. You will need to use comma separated Longitude and Latitude coordinates in each cell. I have provided a few great resources for manually converting addresses or plotting points on a map to obtain the Long/Lat coordinates.

http://maps.huge.info/reverse.htm - Click on the map to plot points and get the Long,Lat points.

http://www.getlatlon.com/- Type in an address to get the Long,Lat point.

3. Format labels using HTML text.
Currently the GMaps component does not provide any text formatting for labels. The component does accept HTML formatted text, allowing for embedded images, hyperlinks, or multiple lines of text for each data point.

I have provided several examples within my sample file to illustrate the flexibility of using concatenated HTML text.

4. Using zoom coordinates
Zoom coordinates provides a nice method for dynamically panning to a specified location, defined as Longitude, Latitude. Because this is a bindable property, you can dynamically zoom to a specific location. I have used this to zoom into each point as I click on them, or to zoom to regions dictated by another selector.

5. Bind a Destination cell
The map component functions as a selector, but only supports the Position insertion method. That means you will need to couple this plugin with Excel logic or a Source Data component to drive functionality. A nice trick that I use was outlined in a previous article, where I use a hidden selector combined with a map to drive dashboard interactivity. Click here to see that article. http://ryangoodman.net/blog/index.php/2008/04/30/using_a_map_to_drive_insert_filtered_row

There is an akward behavior/bug when dragging the GMaps Plugin onto the canvas. For some reason, the component renders as 0 pixels wide and 0 pixels high. The solution is extremely simple but not obvious…You need to click on the component handler and drag it down and right. From there the component functions without any sizing issues.

After using this component, I think there are several features that would make it much more powerful…

Alert color coding for icons
Bindable zoom
More insertion methods in addition to position

This week, Centigon Solutions Inc. released a collection of plug-in components for Xcelsius 2008. Though I am biased because of my involvement with Centigon Solutions, as an Xcelsius power user, I can’t imagine building dashboards without these components. Here is my analysis based on extensive use of these components. I will write a few articles illustrating how to get maximum utility from these components and how I have utilized them. For more information about the Centigon Solutions components, visit:

Xcelsius Add Ons Components

Dynamic Sort: My Excel sort workaround was one of the most downloaded templates and still was an ugly workaround to ranking data. The Dynamic Sort component provides the sorting/ranking capabilities we have longed for and does it extremely well. Every dashboard I build has required some level of ranking and sorting and now we can do it on the fly inside of the SWF.

Background Builder: Most of you do not have the luxury of working with a graphic designer for each dashboard project you produce, leaving you with the standard out of the box backgrounds that come with Xcelsius. While these are clean, we always want more. Background builder is a single component packaged with over 20 designs and textures that can be configured with detailed appearance properties. Bevel and drop-shadow properties are two of the many properties that allow for complete control over your design with little work. Now for most dashboards, I don’t need my graphic designer to produce great looking results.

Reverse Selector: This component is a simple solution to a long lasting problem that never had a workaround: We needed a way to re-use single value components, and input text components to control multiple cells. In the countless calculator applications that I have constructed, I always end up stacking many sliders on top of each other to get the same results, which takes for ever to setup, and limits the possibilities for complex calculators. Reverse selector fills this gap by introducing a new concept that literally works like a reverse selector. This new component evaluates 1 single cell, and inserts into multiple cells within a range based on an index/position number.

GMaps Plugin Beta: This is a great start to what will be an amazing addition to the Xcelsius product. This component is in the infancy stages as a completed component. Even as a beta, this component offers capabilities not possible with other mapping solutions for Xcelsius.

Click here to view these add ons for Xcelsius