Share Data Crystal Reports Software: This paper was written for developers and programmers interested in learning more about using Crystal Xcelsius (CX) to build interactive data visualization and dashboard solutions. The purpose of this discussion is to give developers a deeper understanding of the Crystal Xcelsius technology and design environment so they can determine how to utilize CX for their own projects.

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Who should read this paper? This paper was written for developers and programmers interested in learning more about using Crystal Xcelsius (CX) to build interactive data visualization and dashboard solutions. The purpose of this discussion is to give developers a deeper understanding of the Crystal Xcelsius technology and design environment so they can determine how to utilize CX for their own projects. We start with a brief overview of CX and then dive into some of the underlying technologies that make CX work. We also describe the development workflow and design paradigm in CX that allow for vastly increased developer productivity in creating data visualization solutions.

What is Crystal Xcelsius? Crystal Xcelsius is a data visualization design tool that displays summary-level business data in a visually rich and intuitive format that allows users to analyze and interact with their data in order to make better business decisions. CX is first and foremost a visualization and presentation tool; it is not a back-end reporting tool, nor is it a sophisticated data modeling or integration package. While CX does allow for data manipulation and transformation, it is solely for the purpose of visualization and interactivity purposes, versus more advanced data transformation–type functionality, such as Data Integrator, also available from Business Objects. Most people use Crystal Xcelsius for its robust and award-winning visualization technology, not as a complete dashboard or scorecard solution. While CX most definitely can build amazing dashboards and scorecards, it represents only part of a complete dashboard or scorecard package. Most dashboard and scorecard technologies on the market today come with a complete infrastructure for managing key performance indicators and metrics, strategy mapping, collaboration, security and navigation. If you need a complete dashboard solution and framework, I suggest checking out Business Objects’ Dashboard Manager. But if your interests lie in quickly creating compelling and interactive data visualization solutions for your business users or yourself, read on.

How does it work? Crystal Xcelsius uses a unique combination of Microsoft Excel, as a data modeling tool, and Macromedia Flash Player, as the rendering engine, to compile dynamic visualizations via its proprietary Crystal Xcelsius Designer. Before you dismiss CX as a toy because it uses Excel for data modeling, let me emphasize the word DESIGNER in the previous sentence. Within Crystal Xcelsius, Excel is used solely as a data design tool to help integrate and manipulate data into a format that is easy to bind to and that is used for common charting and data visualization components.

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