InfoSol Announces New XDM Solution for Automatic Refresh,
Distribution and Management of Xcelsius Dashboards
As animated dashboards become more and more dominant in Business
Intelligence solutions, the need to both automatically distribute and
dynamically refresh them is now essential. With this in mind, InfoSol has
launched a new solution specifically designed for the distribution and
refreshing of Xcelsius dashboards, called XDM.
(Read the full article)

InfoSol Announces New XDM Solution for Automatic Refresh, Distribution and Management of Xcelsius Dashboards

As animated dashboards become more and more dominant in Business Intelligence solutions, the need to both automatically distribute and dynamically refresh them is now essential. With this in mind, InfoSol has launched a new solution specifically designed for the distribution and refreshing of Xcelsius dashboards, called XDM.

XDM has a powerful built-in scheduling component that allows you to automatically schedule the distribution of your dashboards by time or other external event. These events can include checking for a specific value or change in value in a database table or file providing ultimate flexibility. With XDM, the dashboards can be distributed to a Network Share, Web site, FTP site or via e-mail. The e-mail capabilities are particularly impressive, allowing the dashboard to be delivered as an in-line e-mail or an attachment which can be both compressed (zipped) and encrypted. There is also an unsubscribe option, allowing the recipient to automatically request not to receive the dashboard any longer. Another really cool option for dashboard e-mail distribution is to send the dashboard as an Xcelsius Dashboard Package (XDP) that contains the dashboard, the data snapshot and other components that allow you to automatically install the complete dashboard locally on the PC, and use it in either an offline or connected online mode.

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But XDM does not just schedule and distribute dashboards, it also provides an amazing data refresh option for connected Xcelsius dashboards. Using the robust XML connection option, XDS can pull data from any commodity database, using a SQL query or stored procedure, and then map the ranges of data retrieved to different components in the Xcelsius dashboard. In addition, XDM has powerful data formatting options, like Cross Tab and Data Selector to accurately generate data ranges exactly as you need them. But the most awesome feature of all is the exclusive Intelligent Cache that XDM provides, that stores the data retrieved in a cache on the XDM server, where it can be selectively retrieved for the dashboard based on user controlled options. By using this cache, XDM can overcome the traditional limitations of other Xcelsius connectivity options. Not only can large amounts of data be stored in the cache, and selectively retrieved on demand, but the cache itself can be automatically refreshed by the XDM scheduler independently of the dashboard viewing. This results in a highly performant and scalable dashboard solution.

XDM can schedule and distribute Xcelsius dashboards through a unique dashboard
package via e-mail, so that the dashboard can be installed on the local PC for either
off-line usage or real-time refresh when connected to the server.

XDM is available for Xcelsius dashboard deployments outside of BusinessObjects Enterprise and makes the perfect total dashboard refresh solution when combined with Xcelsius Workgroup or the new Xcelsius Engage product.

For those who want to use the XDM features with Xcelsius, deployed with BusinessObjects Enterprise, the InfoBurst-XDS product provides the equivalent.

For more information or a free web cast of XDM or InfoBurst-XDS, e-mail infosol@infosol.com.

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I have a need to show dates, in a column, that fall into a certain date range (1-5 days). In the second column, show dates that fall into a second date range (6-10 days). At the bottom of each column, display a count of the dates that fall into each of the criteria. How can I accomplish this?

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Create a variable to the report that will contain the number of days from the initial “Case Create Date” to the current date.

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I would like to highlight values in my crosstab, with a different background color, by comparing the summarized value in the crosstab to other fields in my report, but the highlight expert and the format field/background options don’t seem to work correctly?

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You can create a formula, that results in the word colors you would like, to highlight the summarized fields in the crosstab, and then use that formula as a field in another crosstab that will display on top of the original crosstab.

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