DIGG IT! One of the more interesting developments in the world of Flex is the entry of ILOG Elixir. ILOG is one of the top component companies in the world and specialized in visualization components. They have been quietly working on a great component set called Elixir which includes many of the top most requested components. Lets take a deeper look:
3D Charts - View Source
This demo shows 3D line, area, column, bar, and pie charts. Many of the feature settings available on each chart can be interactively manipulated to test their effects.
Gauges and Dials
This interactive gallery illustrates the broad range of possibilities for circular gauges, linear gauges, and dials.
Map Displays - View Source
This example of a business management dashboard combines many different ILOG Elixir components: Map Displays, Gauges, 3D Charts, and Radar Charts.
Gantt Charts - View Source
This interactive demo explains how to visualize the allocation of resources using the ILOG Elixir Gantt Chart. It displays the schedule of absences for employees.
Organization Charts - View Source
This presentation displays an ILOG Elixir Organization Chart for an example company. It also illustrates how an ILOG Elixir component can be synchronized with other Adobe Flex components—in this case, a tree and property sheet.
Treemap Chart - View Source
This ILOG Elixir Treemap Chart demo displays business data for hundreds of companies, and allows users to manipulate the chart to reveal trends and outliers in the data. A traditional list view is shown alongside the treemap and the two views are synchronized.
Radar Charts - View Source
This presentation compares distinct data points from multiple countries using an ILOG Elixir Radar Chart. The radar chart's properties can be adjusted.
I met up with the ILOG Elixir team at the onAIR event in Paris yesterday. We met very briefly (way to short in fact) but they mentioned they would be in attendance at 360Flex in Milan. I would really like to find a way to better highlight components like Elixir. In many cases developers just do not know that these great products exist.
Kudos to the Elixir team for such a great component set for Flex.
cheers,
Ted :)
I think the charting components are really well done.
However the licensing, to me, is a bit confusing. I had to read the FAQ four times before I was able to distill it and realize that I will need a commercial license only if I actually sell an application (or charge a usage fee) that uses the charting components.
If I develop an application for a 3rd party that will be used in-house then I need to pay end-user license as well as the customer who will be using the application. But reading the licensing agreement is a bit convoluted.
The commercial licensing (right to distribute) is a bit hefty in my opinion 20k per year for all 7 components yikes!
Thanks Ted, that was pleasure meeting you again! We will indeed host a hands-on session at 360Flex Europe. For those who read this, if you plan on attending, we will be happy to get your opinion on what you wait from this session. You can give us feedback by commenting on this blog post.
See you there!
Nice stuff, but way too expensive.
Be sure to read the license agreement first before you get too excited with these components. Not only do they charge you for the components. If you use them in a commercial product it will COST YOU THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A YEAR.
Number of Elixir Modules* Used Annual Fee
1 $5 000
3 $10 000
All 7 $20 000
READ HERE: http://www.ilog.com/products/elixir/pricing/
I don't mind paying for a good set of components. I do mind paying a company thousands of dollars a year to use them in a product.
Good things cost money!
I know of several large companies using these very successfully and the quality in the API's is really high end.
Ted :)
In my opinion an annual fee (of thousands of dollars) for 7 components (no matter how nice they are) is way too overpriced. Something tailored to each person purchasing the components might be a different story.. but thats not the case.
Maybe a few large companies can afford this because it saves them time in developing it themselves. But this is just staggering... I remember when the original Flex (in its entirety) used to cost about 12k.. and it had a whole lot more than 7 Components..
Again I might be comparing Apples to Oranges.. I can see paying $1k for each component (one time fee) but $20k (reoccurring annually on top of that) There is no way you could Deliver a project and expect to make any profit using these components. Most clients would turn this down no matter how pretty they look.
On another note: They are nice components.. Well made and visually well executed.
If you have a commercial application, you are most likely selling that application. And you are most likely employing developers to create that application. Development costs time and money. Most people developing an Elixir-based application are probably only using one component, not all 7. So if you look at the $5000 one year fee for one component compared to how much you'd have to spend of your own time or money to create something equivalent, you can see that the $5000 price is quite a bargain!!
Hi,
To avoid any confusion, let me first introduce myself: I am the ILOG Elixir product manager.
We'll soon update the FAQ on our web site to make it clearer (agree it is much needed).
I do understand that our pricing model might seem complex, so let me clarify:
The OEM licensing does not apply for all commercials apps but only for the ones from ISVs (independent software vendors) that make an OEM use of our components for "off-the-shelf" apps "sold to the world" with licensing or use fees when delivered on a SaaS model. These ISVs have to pay an additional $5,000 a year, per module, for unlimited number of products & deployments (so 1 time yearly fee for all of the products of that company that use our components).
All other cases, the vast majority, are fine with $799 per developer, as:
- Public web site
- Internal applications and portals
- Free public applications (except from ISVs to avoid having them package new products as free extension not to pay the fees)
- paid services from companies for which software is incidental (i.e. core business is not software revenue as banks for instance).
Consultants and software houses developing custom (not off-the-shelf also sold “as is” to multiple customers) services, applications and portals do not fall under the OEM license, except when such customers fall under the OEM license themselves. If so, the fees are meant to be paid by the ISVs, not the development firm/person.
We all know that no model is perfect to cover all use cases and I am honestly open to discuss it with you all to understand where it falls short and is unfair to your business.
Erwan
Erwan,
Thanks for the clarification but it seems that if I develop an application that I want to sell (with or without source code) as a "off the shelf package" or offer in a 'SaaS' form I do need to pay the OEM license cost. If I'm correct and can only agree with most others here that the price is way out of line (for example with other components for sale). I'm sure the company I'm currently doing a project for would be happy to buy 2 or 3 developer licenses but isn't going to give you $10000/year.
Sorry Ted, you have to be more critical! Great components musn't be free but they should at least be affordable.
Grtz,
Tom
Hi Tom,
that's the app you do that trigger the OEM license or not:
If the ones you work one are custom work for a given company, you're fine with the $799 development seat (same dev seat can be used on all your projects)
If that app is an "off-the-shelf" offer your customer will sell "as-is to the world" (as you seem to say), the OEM license indeed applies but it is meant to be paid by your customer, not you (does not change the pricing though, only who pays for it)
Concerning pricing, there are pros and cons in all models. I just want to say that we are pragmatic and open. Feel to start a pricing discussion on our forum at http://forums.ilog.com/elixir/index.php?board=1.0 and I’ll be happy to exchange thought and motivations with you there.
Erwan
The discussion of commercial licensing is all related to the Elixir components, correct?
Can anyone provide similar information for the Flex Data Visualization components (charting components)?
I've looked around on the Adobe site and on the web and general and haven't been able to find anything that indicates what the licensing is for commercial sales of an application that includes the Flex charting components.
We considered purchasing iLog components. Much too expensive. Nice, but not worth the money.
I agree. Their components are much too expensive to OEM. They seem to think they are more than just a component developer. If I paid thier OEM costs, I wouldn't have any monely left in the bank. They really need to rethink thier OEM pricing - IT'S WAY OUT OF LINE. Compare them to any other component manufacturer for what most companies are asking around $700 for they are asking $20 thousand. PULEEEEZ.
Their pricing model reminds me when Flex used to cost $20K. Thank God Adobe remedied that.
I'd use these in my SaaS product if they were reasonably priced for that use.
What kills me is that I could get them cheap... if I were a bank.
I also get off cheap if I'm SAP and can leverage the cost across lots of products/deployments.
But no luck. These guys don't want my business.