This section describes a sample application created on a scenario suitable for financial industry. Financial applications typically rely on vast amounts of data, often obtained in real time from powerful, dedicated servers.

The real-time nature of the information in these applications requires fast updates (the application has to keep up with the data stream coming from the server) and mechanisms to convey the changes to users in a clear, efficient manner.

One common approach used to highlight changes in real time is the use of flashing elements. For example, a grid cell may flash in a different color when its value changes. The flash only lasts for a short time, enough to call the user’s attention to the change.

Another increasingly popular mechanism used to convey rich information in a quick and compact form is the sparkline. A sparkline is a mini-chart that shows trends and summary information more clearly and efficiently than long rows of numbers.

This section describes a sample financial application with real-time data updates, flashing cells, and sparklines. The sample highlights the performance that the C1FlexGrid provides both in Silverlight and in WPF.

The image below shows our sample financial application in action. The image cannot convey the dynamic nature of the application, which shows values changing constantly, so we suggest that you run the samples when you have a chance.