Xcelsius: Retrieve data from Web service

Question

My company is considering buying Xcelsius to allow users the production of dashboards
I think the tool is quite powerful as far as the dashboard creation is concerned, many widgets, based on Excel which the users know well...

I was wondering how good the product was to retrieve data from a web service (WCF for instance) and if the generated SWF was able to update it once it has been published on a web server

Any feedback appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

I know it has been quite some time since you asked this question but here is my answer. The company that I work for uses Xcelsius to create dashboards from a web-service that serves up XML. There are properties in an Xcelsius project that allow the swf to re-query the web-service when parameters have been changed.

The only problem that we have had with the product is it is difficult (possibly impossible, we haven't figured it out) to use a web-service that has authentication. Xcelsius only hit's a URL for the web-service and as such cannot change the authentication headers if the web-service requires a username/password.

Answer 2

In the Web Service connection there is a tab for "Advanced". On this tab you can enter anything you want sent in the SOAP header... such as username & password. Xcelsius doesn't understand the idea of logging in, but putting the static text here will include it in the header and allow you to access data that requires authentication.