How much Excel can we get in Flex?

...and why would we go around doing that when there are perfectly good solutions out there for online spreadsheets? For instance Google Docs in which I still haven't found a bug or a feature I'm missing.

Spreadsheets are necessary because people use them because they know how to use them. It is a straight forward interface that can yield good in high complexity situations.

Now most people want to use them online. And luckily there are plenty to go around.

EditGrid , Expresso , ThinkFreeZoho and Google Docs to name a few. So why build another one in Flex?

Integration, for first. It would be much easier for Flex developers and cheaper for Flex shops to have a component or an API to handle this task easier and faster.

Further, interaction design is very important for user efficiency and you can do a lot there to improve on a vanilla spreadsheet. If the actual spreadsheet wasn't based on Flash Platform, how would you as a Flex Developer handle the interaction development, if possible at all?

So we need them and we need the in Flex too. There is something cooking in this area too.

Idubee has claims to be working on it, but there example link was not working when I was checking them out. I will be back to see if that changes.

Rouge Development does have a working example, albeit a not very complex one. But - it's working good and it's a step in the right direction.

blist which is in beta suprised with their level of detail. It has a very nice amount of functions and plenty of examples and templates which is a victory in itself. I just opened an account and will be checking them out more.

If you know any Flash/Flex based spreadsheet component, library or anything similar, please leave a comment.

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Comments: 2 so far

  1. https://buzzword.acrobat.com/

    Comment by AK, Tuesday, February 3, 2009 @ 4:46 pm

  2. For a project I almost used this one, but it is expensive (I think $800 per use license), but the guy did a great job and it scales very well. If you need excel functions in Flex, this is the way to go!

    The guy is in Korea, but will work with you if you need to make changes…MechGrid is the component. I actually found their swc in googlecode, while searching for html tables in Flex.

    http://www.mechansp.com/index.php

    Comment by lordB8r, Wednesday, January 13, 2010 @ 3:45 pm

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