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Optional Techniques and Best Practices for Debugging and Tuning Xcelsius Dashboards

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Tools,  techniques and best practices for debugging and tuning Xcelsius dashboards Session 0107 Ilya Blyakhman,  Allstate Insurance,  BI COE September 1013, 2012 Orlando, Florida September 11, 2012
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Page 1: Optional Techniques and Best Practices for Debugging and Tuning Xcelsius Dashboards

8/10/2019 Optional Techniques and Best Practices for Debugging and Tuning Xcelsius Dashboards

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Tools, techniques and best practices for debugging and tuning 

Xcelsius dashboards  Session 0107

Ilya Blyakhman,

 Allstate

 Insurance,

 BI

 COE

September 10‐13, 2012

Orlando, Florida

September 11, 2012

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•   The Allstate Corporation is the 

nation’s largest publicly held 

personal lines insurer.

•   A Fortune 100 company with 

$132.7 billion in assets

About Allstate Insurance

•   Allstate is

 reinventing

 protection

 and

 retirement

 to

 help

 

individuals in approximately 17 million households protect what 

they have today and better prepare for tomorrow

•   Allstate is widely known through the “You’re In Good Hands 

With Allstate®” slogan.

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•   Understanding Xcelsius “under the hood”

•   Debugging Best practices

•   Xcelsius Template and pre‐deployment checklist 

•   Debugging Xcelsius Dashboards tools and techniques

•   Identifying bottlenecks / HTTP debuggers

•   Performance tuning

•   General design recommendations

•   Connected dashboards 

•   Monitoring / auditing

 capabilities

•   Q&A

Agenda

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Works best for

•   Highly interactive visualizations

•   Interactions defined

 by

 dashboard

 designer

 (predefined

 path)

•   KPIs and aggregated data display (shows big picture) 

Was not design for 

•   Native handling of  large datasets

•   Detail reporting (no paging, caching, native export 

capabilities)

•   On‐

the‐

fly 

aggregation 

of  

large 

datasets 

•   Complex applications (no complex business logic processing, 

limited debugging capabilities)

Understanding Xcelsius use case

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Architecture  – Design Time

Understanding Xcelsius “under the hood”

 Adobe Flash

Data

Model

Data Source Tier Data Source Tier  Business Logic Tier Business Logic Tier  Visualization Tier (Designer)Visualization Tier (Designer)

Business Objects

Universe

Crystal, WebI

Static Data

Deployment tier Deployment tier 

InfoView

Xcelsius Components

Database

External Data

Formulas

Xcelsius

Components

Static Data

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Architecture  – Run Time

Understanding Xcelsius “under the hood”

 Adobe Flash

Data Source Tier Data Source Tier  Business Logic Tier Business Logic Tier  Visualization Tier Visualization Tier 

Business Objects

Universe

Crystal, WebI

Deployment tier Deployment tier 

InfoView

Database

External Data

Formulas

Xcelsius

Components

Static Data

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Xcelsius dashboard load and initialization 

Understanding Xcelsius “under the hood”

`

Database

External Data

Formulas

Xcelsius

Components

Static Data

Please wait ... Loading dataDisplay data loadedduring initialization

Database

External Data

Formulas

Xcelsius

Components

22   33   4411

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Initial Load (high level) 

1. Flash file (.swf) download and load Flash player

2. Flash load/initialization (initializing dialog)

1. Show Initializing

 Splash

 screen

2. Load static data

3. Load external data (QaaWS, WS, etc)  triggered by “Refresh 

before components are loaded” on Connection

4. Load Xcelsius

 components

5. Calculate Excel formulas and set component bindings

3. Display Dashboard 

4. Data load (after initialization complete)

1. Load external

 data

 (QaaWS,

 WS,

 etc)

 triggered

 by

 “Refresh

 

after components are loaded” on Refresh button

2. Calculate Excel formulas

Understanding Xcelsius “under the hood”

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Issues

1. Flash file Download 

1. Connection bandwidth

2. Flash file

 size

 

2. Flash initialization and load time

1. Hardware (CPU, Memory)

2. Dashboard Flash

1. Complexity of  the component model 2. Use of  graphics

3. Static data

4. Formulas5. External Data load 

Understanding Xcelsius “under the hood”

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Standards and Best Practices

•   UI/Style guidelines

•   Performance guidelines for dashboard and data access

•   Data interaction

 and

 integration

 with

 other

 platforms

 •   Define use of  colors and labels to document Excel Data Model

•   Use of  Xcelsius Template

Pre‐deployment

 checklist

•   Adherence to standards and best practices

•   Remove Test Data, unused components, formulas, etc

•   Setup defaults

•   Analyze visual

 consistency

 

•   Check size and complexity of  the dashboard

•   Use of  Xcelsius Template

Debugging Best practices  – Standards and checklists

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An ounce of  prevention is worth a pound of  cure

•   Visual: Common Layout, Preset Logo, Theme,  Color Scheme

•   Common UI Elements: Title, Data Refreshed as Of,  Help, About, 

Refresh, Print, Reset, Copyright, Contact, Navigation

Debugging Best practices ‐ Xcelsius Template

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An ounce of  prevention is worth a pound of  cure

•   Data Model: 

•   Documenting data

 model

  – Color

 scheme

 / labels

 

•   Excel Tabs: Global, Help, About, FlashVar, Visibility, Static 

Data, Navigation

•   Integration: 

Audit/Monitoring, QaaWS/Web

 service,

 Integration

 

with detail reporting (OpenDocument, WSS,  etc)

Debugging Best practices ‐ Xcelsius Template

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Xcelsius debugging

•   Design time

•   Grid like UI components bound to data ranges in question to 

preview data

•   Snapshot Current Excel Data (Xcelsius menu File‐Snapshot  –

Current Excel Data) 

•   Preview vs. Export

•   Run Time 

•   Grid like UI components bound to data ranges possibly hidden 

until special action will switch dashboard into debug mode

Debugging Xcelsius: tools and techniques

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•   WEB/HTTP Debuggers/Proxies/Monitors

•   Fiddler (http://www.fiddler2.com)

•   Charles (http://www.charlesproxy.com )

•   HTTPWatch (http://www.httpwatch.com )

WEB/HTTP Debuggers/Proxies/Monitors

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•   Proxies IE, FF, Chrome, MS Office, Xcelsius Designer and others

•   Enables remote machine HTTP

•   Installing Fiddler

•   Starting Fiddler

•   Analyzing HTTP or HTTPS traffic

•   Working with sessions

•   Start/Stop session

 capture

•   Break points

•   Filters

•   Saving sessions

•   Replaying session

•   Altering session

Using Fiddler

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Dashboard performance profiling

•   Dashboard load and initialization

•   Load timeline

•   User location

 and

 bandwidth

 impact

•   Web Services (WS)/Query as Web Service (QaaWS)/BIWS/Live

•   Web Service URL

•   Simultaneous WS calls to the same server (IE6,7=2, IE8,9=6)

•   Identifying QaaWS

 calls

•   Parameters

•   Replaying and altering WS calls

•   Response size

Using Fiddler: Performance profiling

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Debugging using Fiddler

•   Dashboard load

•   FlashVars

•   BOE Session

•   Web Services/QaaWS

•   Web Service URL

•   Identifying QaaWS

•   Parameters•   Enterprise Authentication and Password security

•   Cross Domain policy crossdomain.xml

•   Xcelsius Errors 2032, 2170

•   OpenDocument Debugging

Using Fiddler

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Problem statement 

•   ROI for dashboards tied to usage metrics

•   There is no audit/usage tracking capabilities for Xcelsius 

dashboards available in BOE XI3.1 or hosted outside of  BOE 

environment

Monitoring and audit/usage tracking

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Solution 

•   V1 Parsing web server logs

•   V2 Audit

 web

 service

 (custom

 .Net

 solution)

•   Enterprise dashboards master list

•   Enterprise dashboard 

•   audit database

•   universe 

•   set of  Usage Reports and dashboards

Monitoring and audit/usage tracking

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Audit web service

•   Audit web service added to each Enterprise dashboard

•   Best practice

 

•   Part of  the Xcelsius template

•   Fires on load

•   Returns User Windows ID, even if  user logged on to BOE 

under different

 ID

Monitoring and audit/usage tracking

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Usage Tracking Universe/Dashboard

•   Top/bottom  10 Dashboards/Users 

•   Historical dashboard

 usage

 patterns

•   Master Dashboard List

•   Dashboard ROI evaluation 

•   Non usage can be tracked

•   Helps identify

 key

 users/departments

Monitoring and audit/usage tracking

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Connected dashboards

•   List 1‐3 key points that attendees will take away from your 

session.

Performance tuning

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•   Defining dashboard development standards, template and 

pre‐deployment

 checklist

 significantly

 simplifies

 dashboard

 

development, debugging and performance optimization.

•   HTTP Debugging tool like Fiddler provides ability to 

monitor, drill

 into

 and

 replay

 http

 traffic

 between

 

connected dashboards and servers. It considerably 

simplifies dashboard debugging and optimization.

•   Audit/Monitoring service provides efficient way to identify 

Xcelsius dashboard usage and ultimately ROI

Key Learnings

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Contact 

Ilya Blyakhman

Ilya.Blyakhman at allstate.com

Questions

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Thank you for participating.

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 feedback

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SESSION CODE:

 0107

 

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 www.asug.com


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