ILOG (acquired by IBM) has just announced the Elixir 3.0 beta. The Elixir suite provides the most advanced data-visualization components for Flex developers. To celebrate this new release, I had the chance to interview Erwan Paccard (Elixir PM). I invite you to read this article and give a try to these amazing components!

Erwan, can you describe your role at IBM ILOG ?

I’m a product manager within the IBM ILOG visualization group, planning out the future of our user interface products.

IBM ILOG ELIXIR is today considered as the first-class suite of rich components for data visualization. You’ve just announced the availability of Elixir 3.0 (still in beta). What features of this new release would you like to highlight?

We’ve done a “two prong” approach for this release—we actually have two products now: IBM ILOG Elixir 3.0, the upgrade to our popular Flex/AIR component suite, and also IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise, which extends Elixir with some heavy-duty new functionality (Diagram and improved Gantt charts).

Both releases targets Flex 4 with new Spark components as Diagram, Timeline, Gauges or Maps and adaptation of our MX components to Flex 4. For instance, we made sure that our MX components (like the Org chart or the Gantt charts) can use Spark-like renderers (MXML graphics).

We also worked on better Flash Builder integration with features such as a custom gauge creation wizard and one-click import of Elixir libraries in Flex projects.

Amongst other improvements, I’d like to highlight our new printing APIs, keyboard navigation and screen reader support for most components. We also rewrote some internals to better leverage Flash Player 10 for improved performance. For example, the 3D Charts now use Matrix3D and Vector3D instead of our own past implementations.

Some advanced components, such as the Gauge or the new Timeline components, leverage the new Spark architecture introduced in Flex 4. How does IBM ILOG handle Spark?

We rewrote the component from scratch to fully leverage Flex 4

You also mention on your blog some performance improvements. The IBM ILOG Elixir 2.0 components were already fast and stable. Are the performance gains significant in version 3?

Yes, for instance we now use Vector instead of Array and we all know that can bring some interesting speed improvements. In the blog post, we also mentioned some compiler options, and recommendations to use the latest Flash players at runtime. For instance, we saw significant gains just by switching to Flash Player 10.1.

The new Diagram component is one of the most impressive new components. What are the IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise Diagram use cases?

There are many uses for it, from process and workflow applications, business organization charts, network management displays and UML modelers, to name just a few. In brief, this module is a display engine for interconnected data. Let me give you an example: you have to develop a network monitoring display where you want to see what happens in real time to the equipment in your network. You have inventories listing what your devices are and how they are interconnected together. You can pass the list of your devices and their connections to the new Diagram component and we will create and arrange a readable graphical display for you.

Furthermore, we provide a technology called Graph Layout that automates the placement of each equipment icon and the links between the devices to make the overall display more readable by a human being and easy to navigate.

Even better is that you can use the Flex 4 Spark approach to style your display. For example, when a given property is equal to “router” you will use a particular graphical representation, if there are alarms then you can add a custom decoration, and so on. In the end, through data binding and other standard Flex techniques, you can very easily develop live monitoring or editing front ends.

I could describe the same approach for business processes: you know the name of tasks and events and you know how they are chained together…you can use the Diagram component to display the whole orchestration.

A few more things worth mentioning on this new module: it is built upon our 20+ years experience on other platforms (C++, Java, .NET) and all of the placement computations (the graph layout) are performed client side using Action Script to avoid costly server roundtrips. This type of complex computation is made possible by both the latest Flash players and the Flex 4 architecture, what we believe to be a stable foundation for the years to come.

Any update on the business model?

The business model of IBM ILOG Elixir is unchanged.

We have also introduced IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise, which is a superset of IBM ILOG Elixir, and adds the new Diagram module and a much improved Gantt module for planning and scheduling displays. IBM ILOG Elixir Enterprise will be part of the IBM Passport Advantage program, which, among many other things, means our support is committed for at least the next 5 years, the pricing follows IBM’s usual practices including deployment fees, sales programs for partners, academics, standardized sales processes and customer incentives. I did a blog post covering this topic https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/elixir/entry/ibm_ilog_elixir_elixir_enterprise_explanations2?lang=en_us

As a Flex developer, where should I start if I need to download and play with the IBM Elixir components?

My recommended path is usually to:

- Take a look at Tour de Flex to see some Elixir demos and check their source code http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/tourdeflex/web/#sampleId=14050;illustIndex=0;docIndex=-1

- Check more product demos [http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/visualization/demos/elixir.html]

- Download a trial [https://www14.software.ibm.com/iwm/web/cc/earlyprograms/ibm/ilogee30open/] and play with it.

- Visit our blog for more coding samples [https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/elixir/?lang=en_us]

- Connect with the R&D team and peers on our forum [http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/category.jspa?categoryID=276]

Erwan, thanks a lot for your time, and congratulations for this great new release!