Norman Elton

In today's world of e-commerce, simply viewing data in a Web browser is rarely enough. Clients constantly demand reporting, charting, graphing, and analysis of complex data. Although Macromedia has made great strides in this direction by incorporating graphing capabilities (the new CFGRAPH) and access to a reporting engine (CFREPORT), these are all server-side solutions. A simple request for a new chart can send developers scrambling. Wouldn't it be great if end users could manipulate and analyze data themselves, using a powerful suite of tools that they're already familiar with! Since its inception in 1988, Microsoft Excel has grown to become the Swiss Army knife of data analysis. While not always the best tool for the job, users tend to make it do just about anything. ... (more)