Since version 2008 of Crystal Reports it is easy to integrate Xcelsius SWF into pixel perfect reports. But what about Web Intelligence reports?

Simon Choy won a Report Design and Dashboard content contest at Business Objects with a "cool" solution that details how to embed an Xcelsius object to read live tabular data from a Web Intelligence report and embed a Xcelsius component into Web Intelligence without leaving the report.

Find out the Whitepaper and examples for Embedding Xcelsius Objects into Web Intelligence Documents in the Diamond Technical Community.

See below for a preview of embedded Xcelsis in Web Intelligence:

regarding Xcelsius 2008 SP1:

If you like your Dashboard to refresh the Data on Load there are two ways you could go:

• Refresh On Load as an option in certain Data Connections. (since initial Release of Xcelsius 2008)
• Refresh On Load as an option of the Connection Refresh Button component. (since SP1)

Although the option has the same basic function in each instance, it does operate differently.
There a some basic diffences of the funcions in a deloyed SWF file:

Technical background:

• Refresh On Load in Data Connections (Data Manager)
  The option forces the Data Connection to retrieve data from the source before the components are generated. So the components use the retrieven data as default data set. (and ignores the data in the excel data model) Sounds well but could cause some trouble (see below: observed trouble)
• Refresh On Load of Connection Refresh component.
  As the Connection Refresh button is a component and the SWF first retrieves data from Data Connections and Excel Spreadsheet, Xcelsius uses the Excel-Speedsheet data as default data set for your visualization components.

Use cases:

• Use in Data Connections:
  Data is retrieved before the components are displayed, avoiding a screen flicker when changing from spreadsheet data to connection data.
  The data retrieved on load by a Data Connection is included as part of the default state of the model, providing the data set for bound component features like initial limits and the Reset Button.

• Use in Connection Refresh Button:
  Data is retrieved after the components are displayed. This may be perceived as faster initialization, because the loading bar may displayed for a shorter period of time. Data is retrieved after the selector components insert their data, thereby allowing components to provide parameters necessary for the data connection associated with the Connection Refresh Button. The data retrieved on load by the Connection Refresh Button is not included as part of the default state of the model, therefore there is no data set for bound component features like initial limits and the Reset Button.

• Use in both:
  This usage scenario is not recommended. The best practice would be to choose to enable the Refresh On Load option in only one, either in a Data Connection or in the Connection Refresh Button component. Enabling the option in both instances would retrieve the same data twice, creating excess network traffic and clutter within the application.

Observed trouble:

I observed that in some scenarios, especially when working with large data sets, the usage of Refresh on Load in Data Connections cause the Flash to get stuck during initializing.

Workaround:

A workaround is to use the other option (Connection Refresh component).

Just another advantage of using Connection Refresh is that the initialization of the SWF runs faster and the user sees your Dashboard while waiting for the data. If you don't like the user to see the default data, which is stored in your excel model you have to remove it. If you don't like the user to see your visualization components before having refreshed data you could bind the dynamic visibility of all the components to a cell which is filled after data is retrieven.