Build 3.0.0.39 of xlsgen continues on the previous build on geomaps, this time adding color gradients and a few visual component interface helpers.

Color gradients is a convenient mechanism for creating color ranges instead of declaring every single color a country/state/region should be displayed with. The obvious scenario for this is business intelligence where using colors such as red and green can be used to highlight zones of stress.

The other improvement is on visual component parametering. Before that build, when you had to pass a literal such as a number or a string, you would pass something such as Formula = "=50" or Formula = "\"string\"". Not exactly user-friendly even though from a strict capability point of view, passing formulas carries all the strength of arbitrary Excel formulas, used to populate maps!
Well, the new helpers let you pass numbers or strings very easily. In the example above, that would be ValueAsNumber = 50, and ValueAsLabel = "string", respectively.

Here is a sample code for illustrating the point of color gradients.

	^;
sample 4 : Euro zone GDP per country, with and without associated values

In this sample, the data is actual Euro stats data available here :

sample 4 data : Euro stats

The data is sorted by GDP, and it is convenient to associate a color gradient to the GDP so that countries with higher GDP will be greener and countries with lower GDP will be more red.

And here is the full source code, data and geomaps creation in C++ :

xlsgen::IXlsWorkbookPtr wbk = engine->New( L"geomaps.xls" );

xlsgen::IXlsWorksheetPtr wksht001 = wbk->AddWorksheet(L"sheet");

xlsgen::IXlsVisualComponentPtr comp = wksht001->NewVisualComponent(L"Geomaps.ARsTdesign.1",
   1,  // row1
   3,  // col1
   29, // row2
   10,  // col2
   0,0,0,0);

// data source : http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/2-20062012-AP/EN/2-20062012-AP-EN.PDF

wksht001->Cell[1][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span width=15.425781><font size=12><b>Country</b></font></span>";
wksht001->Cell[1][2]->HtmlLabel = L"<span width=12.570313><font size=12><b>GDP</b></font></span>";
wksht001->Cell[2][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Luxembourg</span>";
wksht001->Cell[2][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>274</span>";
wksht001->Cell[3][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Netherlands</span>";
wksht001->Cell[3][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>131</span>";
wksht001->Cell[4][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Austria</span>";
wksht001->Cell[4][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>129</span>";
wksht001->Cell[5][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Ireland</span>";
wksht001->Cell[5][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>127</span>";
wksht001->Cell[6][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Sweden</span>";
wksht001->Cell[6][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>126</span>";
wksht001->Cell[7][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Denmark</span>";
wksht001->Cell[7][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>125</span>";
wksht001->Cell[8][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Germany</span>";
wksht001->Cell[8][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>120</span>";
wksht001->Cell[9][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Belgium</span>";
wksht001->Cell[9][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>118</span>";
wksht001->Cell[10][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Finland</span>";
wksht001->Cell[10][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>116</span>";
wksht001->Cell[11][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>United kingdom</span>";
wksht001->Cell[11][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>108</span>";
wksht001->Cell[12][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>France</span>";
wksht001->Cell[12][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>107</span>";
wksht001->Cell[13][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Italy</span>";
wksht001->Cell[13][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>101</span>";
wksht001->Cell[14][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Spain</span>";
wksht001->Cell[14][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>99</span>";
wksht001->Cell[15][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Cyprus</span>";
wksht001->Cell[15][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>92</span>";
wksht001->Cell[16][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Slovenia</span>";
wksht001->Cell[16][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>84</span>";
wksht001->Cell[17][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Malta</span>";
wksht001->Cell[17][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>83</span>";
wksht001->Cell[18][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Greece</span>";
wksht001->Cell[18][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>82</span>";
wksht001->Cell[19][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Czech republic</span>";
wksht001->Cell[19][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>80</span>";
wksht001->Cell[20][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Portugal</span>";
wksht001->Cell[20][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>77</span>";
wksht001->Cell[21][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Slovakia</span>";
wksht001->Cell[21][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>73</span>";
wksht001->Cell[22][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Estonia</span>";
wksht001->Cell[22][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>67</span>";
wksht001->Cell[23][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Hungary</span>";
wksht001->Cell[23][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>66</span>";
wksht001->Cell[24][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Poland</span>";
wksht001->Cell[24][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>65</span>";
wksht001->Cell[25][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Lithuania</span>";
wksht001->Cell[25][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>62</span>";
wksht001->Cell[26][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Latvia</span>";
wksht001->Cell[26][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>58</span>";
wksht001->Cell[27][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Romania</span>";
wksht001->Cell[27][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>49</span>";
wksht001->Cell[28][1]->HtmlLabel = L"<span>Bulgaria</span>";
wksht001->Cell[28][2]->HtmlFloat = L"<span>45</span>";

comp->ParameterByName[L"SetTitle"]->ValueAsLabel = L"Euro zone GDP per country in 2011";

// countries
comp->ParameterByName[L"SetRegions"]->Formula = L"=A2:A28"; // area reference

// GDP
comp->ParameterByName[L"SetLabels"]->Formula  = L"=B2:B28"; // area reference

// color gradient
comp->ParameterByName[L"SetAdditionalColor"]->ValueAsNumber = 0x00FF00; // green
comp->ParameterByName[L"SetAdditionalColor"]->ValueAsNumber = 0xFF0000; // red

// background color
comp->ParameterByName[L"SetBackgroundColor"]->ValueAsNumber = 0xCCCCCC;

wksht001->PageSetup->PageOrientation = FALSE;
wksht001->Export->ExportAsPDF(L"geomaps.pdf");

wbk->Close();