* Latest version of Xcelsius from Infommersion has been groomed and polished
In an issue of this newsletter a long time ago and far, far away (actually Nov. 24, 2003), I discussed a product that is perhaps one of the slickest and most sophisticated that I’ve seen in the last five years: Xcelsius from Infommersion.
Since then Infommersion was acquired by Business Objects and the product has been groomed and polished to where I would argue there is nothing even close to it. The latest version is called Crystal Xcelsius.
Like the original Xcelsius product Crystal Xcelsius allows you to import an Excel spreadsheet and add controls such as sliders, graphs, gauges, and tables to create an interactive Flash presentation. These live models of the data can be added to any content that can have Flash embedded.
To get an idea of what you can do with Crystal Xcelsius see the showcase page.
Crystal Xcelsius has, however, gone way beyond the features of the original product and there are now three editions. The latest of these editions is CX Now!, a free limited features version that provides list, label, and toggle selectors along with four basic charts (line, column, pie, bar), and gauges, dials, sliders, and numeric value displays.
Business Objects are also running a competition for the best “dashboard” created with CX Now! And the first prize is $10,000.
To understand the feature differences between the various editions there’s a comparison page and specific page for the Pro version features.
I think that Crystal Xcelsius is one of the best examples of how to create rich internet applications and for communicated complex data there’s nothing like it.
