Faroe, Laos, Liechtenstein (I can’t even pronounce this one) . Don’t get confused, these are some of the names of the countries i came across when i started writing about “Xcelsius 2008 map component”. I’ve never heard them before. One of the major additions to Xcelsius 2008 is the expansion of Map component in terms of number of countries and their respective regions. Earlier versions of Xcelsius had just 8 maps to play with, however the 2008 version has 92 (93 in SP1, Canada by Province). Thanks to Xcelsius, now i know a lot of countries. There are a total of 14 Continent Maps. 78 Country Maps and 1 State Map. Click on the Tabs above to view the lists. Thanks to Dallas Marks for listing them out.
There is an Excel spreadsheet with all the Map names and their respective regions breakdown on Business Objects, an SAP company website. You can download the file here. I’m sure this file will be very helpful when developing dashboards with maps. However i thought a SWF version of the same will be more visually attractive and gives a better idea to the user about all the maps in Xcelsius 2008. I built this using Xcelsius 2008 SP1, so you will find the latest addition to the List, “Canada by Province” Map. Download the source files at the end of the Post.
Although its a comprehensive list of maps, there are major misses like Mexico by State, India by State and other US States by Countys etc. I recently was discussing a freelance project proposal with a client in India. The Client has businesses all over India an abroad, they were impressed with Xcelsius’s capability of producing great dashboards, however when they asked about a Map for India by States, i had to say no. I think the Xcelsius Product team should focus more on building maps for developing countries. I’m sure no one uses maps for Armenia by region, Faroe Islands by region, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. The reason is that these countries have just one Region and there is no point in using a map in such a case. Hope to see some useful maps in the next release.
BTW, here is a great video on “How to Create Custom maps in Xcelsius“ by Mike Alexander.
All the Europe and UK maps are a great additions. I hope you will like the SWF version. Comments and feedback is appreciated.
Click here for a full blown version.
