RCHART for .NET, User Guide

Copyright 2005, J4L Components (http://www.java4less.com)
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RChart , first steps.

• Installation
• Where to start
• Format of the parameters

Installation

The installation of RChart is very simple:

1. download the evaluation version from http://www.java4less.com.
2. Unzip the file you have downloaded in an empty directory. Make sure you unzip also the subdirectories.

Note about the evaluation version: the evaluation version has the following restrictions:

• it plots a maximum of 8 values.
• it plots a maximum of 3 series
• it displays always the "RChart demo" text in the legend.

The product includes precompiled versions of the component in the NET10 , NET11 and NET20 directories. The name of the files are rchart10.dll (for .NET10 ), rchart11.dll and so on.

You can execute the sample application by double cliking on ChartViewer10.exe , ChartViewer11.exe or ChartViewer20.exe.

Where to start

As starting point we recommend you not to create a chart from scratch but to take one of the examples we provide and start working by modifying them. We provide examples for:

• A sample chart viewer that loads charts definitions from files (source/ChartViewer.cs) and many chart files in the "examples2" sudirectories.
• A c# file that creates charts using the API (source/examples.cs).
• A aspx page that creates a charts and send it to the browser (AspXExample/bars/ChartC.aspx).
• A small aspx application (in the AspXExamples2_1 directory) which displays several charts, including realtime updates, drill drown , tips and other features.

Format of the parameters

There are some parameters that have a special format:

• Colors: predefined values are:
  
  

  RED WHITE GREEN BLUE YELLOW GRAY DARKGRAY BLACK LIME OLIVE MAROON NAVY PURPLE TELA FUCHSIA AQUA ALICEBLUE ANTIQUEWHITE AQUAMARINE

  AZURE BEIGE BLUEVIOLET BROWN BORLYWOOD CORAL CYAN DARKGOLDENROD DARKGREEN DARKOLIVEGREEN DARKORANGE DARKORCHID DARKSALMON DARKTURQUOISE DARKVIOLET DEEPPINK DEEPSKYBLUE FORESTGREEN GOLD

  GOLDENROD GREENYELLOW HOTPINK INDIANRED IVORY LAVENDER LAWNGREEN LIGHTBLUE LIGHTCORAL LIGHTCYAN LIGHTGRAY LIGHTPINK LIGHTSALMON LIGHTSKYBLUE LIGHTYELLO LIMEGREEN MAGENTA MEDIUMBLUE MEDIUMPURPLE

  MIDNIGHTBLUE ORANGE ORANGERED ORCHID PALEGREEN PALETURQUOISE PALEVIOLETRED PINK PLUM PURPLE SALMON SEAGREEN SIENNA SKYBLUE SPRINGGREEN TURQUOISE VIOLET YELLOWGREEN

  
  
  You can also use the RGB numeric value of a color as parameter. For example "0xFF0000" is red (RGB format), "00x00FF00" is green and so on.

.

• Line styles have the format <width>|<color>|<style>. Style can be LINE, DASHED or DOTS. Example: "1|RED|LINE"
• Fonts have the format <font name>|<style>|<size>. Style can be PLAIN, ITALIC or BOLD. Example: "Arial|BOLD|12"
• Line styles have the format <width>|<color>|<style>. Style can be LINE, DASHED or DOTS. Example: "1|RED|LINE".
  You can define transparency in line styles using an additional parameter: <width>|<color>|<style>|<transparency>. <transparency> is a value between 0 (full transparent) and 255 (opaque). You can use 120 for semi-transparent colors.
  
• Fill style: there are several options:
  • <color>: for plain color filling.
  • <color>|<transparentcy>: for transparent color filling. <transparency> is a value between 0 (full transparent) and 255 (opaque).
    
  • <colorFrom>:<colorTo>:<orientation>: for gradient filling. <orientation> can be VERTICAL or HORIZONTAL. The fill style of following bar has been defined with "RED:ORANGE:HORIZONTAL".
    
    
    
    as you can see the color changes from the <colorFrom> to the <colorTo>.
    
    
  • <imageFile>. For pattern filling. The following area chart uses a pattern filling defined as "pattern1.gif"
    
    
    
    where the pattern file "pattern1.gif" is: