SAP Business Objects Xcelsius 2008
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About Xcelsius 2008
In 2006 Business Objects launched the first edition of Crystal Xcelsius, heralding a new age of visualising static data gathered from Excel spreadsheets, databases or BO XI, into flash based dashboarding and dynamic graphic presentations (charts, graphs, dials etc). Despite both its obvious potential and clear competitive edge a number of technical inconveniences and a few limitations in functionality left Xcelsius seeming to many a square peg in a round hole, sitting slightly out of kilter with BO’s XI toolset. Thankfully Xcelsius has been redeveloped with infinitely enhanced functionality and has been realigned and integrated with the rest of XI’s architecture.
New Features & Functions
Here are a number of the features/improvements that we feel will get any Xcelsius developer (or sceptic) interested:
- GUI facelift with embedded spreadsheet - The Xcelsius interface has been re-designed using Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex technologies. The object browser, property windows, menus and toolbars have all been redesigned. The Excel data mapping process is now fully integrated into Xcelsius, so there is no longer the need to continually switch between Excel and Xcelsius and re-import your Excel sheet over and over again.
- Copy and Paste - You can now re-use your objects by copying and pasting components between different instances of Xcelsius by simply copying and pasting.
- Alerts in Selectors - This is a great little feature. It allows users to use existing alerting functionality to configure selectors to display alert icons for each label. What better way to give your users an idea of what to click on!
- Data Manager - There is now no need for managing multiple data connection buttons. The Data Manager is a central location for managing and configuring all the connectivity options including flash variables and XML maps.
- Connection refresh button - With the click of a button you can now simultaneously refresh all external data connections and retrieve the latest data directly from the data source.
- Print Button - Your Xcelsius Dashboards can even look great on paper now.
- One Click Export - You can now enjoy trouble-free management of your Xcelsius models by saving and exporting your models to the Business Objects Enterprise Platform with the click of a button.
Summary
No one would contest the potential of Xcelsius when first launched, only its practicality. Xcelsius 2008 however is a fully functioning, XI integrated, dashboarding dream.
