RCHART .NET TUTORIAL, Chapter 11

Copyright 2003, J4L Components (http://www.java4less.com)
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The API

Chart creation process

We recommend you to create charts using the parameters however if you need it you can create charts using the api (see documentation in the api subdirectory of your installation).

The process is:

1. Import RChart assembly

[C#]
using J4L.RChart;

[VB.NET]
Imports J4L.RChart;
2. Create the title [C#]
Title title=new Title("Sales (thousands $)");

[VB.NET]
dim mytitle as Title = new Title("Sales (thousands $)")
3. Create the axis you need (depends on the chart)

[C#]
Axis XAxis=new Axis(Axis.HORIZONTAL,new Scale());
Axis YAxis=new Axis(Axis.VERTICAL,new Scale());
XAxis.scale.min=0;
YAxis.scale.min=0;
.....

[VB.NET]
dim XAxis as Axis=new Axis(Axis.HORIZONTAL,new Scale())
dim YAxis as Axis=new Axis(Axis.VERTICAL,new Scale())
XAxis.scale.min=0
YAxis.scale.min=0
.....
4. Create the legend [C#]
Legend l=new Legend();
l.addItem("Products",new FillStyle(Color.Blue)); l.addItem("Services",new FillStyle(Color.Green));

[VB.NET]
dim l as Legend=new Legend()
l.addItem("Products",new FillStyle(Color.Blue))
l.addItem("Services",new FillStyle(Color.Green))
5. Create the axis labels

[C#]
XLabel= new HAxisLabel("",Color.Blue,new Font(new FontFamily("Arial"),14);

YLabel= new VAxisLabel("Brutto",Color.Black,new Font(new FontFamily("Arial"),14);


[VB.NET]
dim XLabel as HAxisLabel= new HAxisLabel("",Color.Blue,new Font(new FontFamily("Arial"),14))

dim YLabel as VAxisLabel= new VAxisLabel("Brutto",Color.Black,new Font(new FontFamily("Arial"),14))

 

6. create the plotter (or plotters if you combine lines and bars) [C#]
LinePlotter3D plot=new LinePlotter3D();


[VB.NET]
dim plot as LinePlotter3D=new LinePlotter3D()
7. create the chart and set properties (labels,legend) [C#]
Chart chart=new Chart(title,plot,XAxis,YAxis);
chart.XLabel=XLabel;
chart.YLabel=YLabel;
chart.legend=l;


[VB.NET]
dim mychart as Chart=new Chart(mytitle,plot,XAxis,YAxis)
mychart.XLabel=XLabel
mychart.YLabel=YLabel
mychart.legend=l
8. create the data series [C#]
RValue[] d1={RValue(1),RValue(1),RValue(3),RValue(3.5),RValue(5),RValue(4),RValue(2)};
LineDataSerie data1= new LineDataSerie(d1,new LineStyle(1,Color.Blue,LineStyle.LINE_NORMAL));


[VB.NET]
dim d1 as RValue()={RValue(1),RValue(1),RValue(3),RValue(3.5),RValue(5),RValue(4),RValue(2)}
dim data1 as LineDataSerie= new LineDataSerie(d1,new LineStyle(1,Color.Blue,LineStyle.LINE_NORMAL))
9. add serie to chart [C#]
chart.addSerie(data1);


[VB.NET]
mychart.addSerie(data1)
   

 

 

The chartLoader

You can use the ChartLoader to create your charts using the parameters:

[c#]

// define variable
ChartLoader chartLoader= new ChartLoader();
// set chart parameters
chartLoader.setParameter("TITLECHART","Sales 2002");
chartLoader.setParameter("XLABEL","Month");
chartLoader.setParameter("YLABEL","Million $");
chartLoader.setParameter("XSCALE_MIN","0");
chartLoader.setParameter("XSCALE_MAX","5.5");
chartLoader.setParameter("YSCALE_MIN","-15");
chartLoader.setParameter("BIG_TICK_INTERVALX","1");
chartLoader.setParameter("BIG_TICK_INTERVALY","10"); chartLoader.setParameter("XAXIS_LABELS","June|July|Aug.|Sept.|Oct.|Nov.|Dec."); chartLoader.setParameter("CERO_XAXIS","LINE");
chartLoader.setParameter("YAXIS_INTEGER","TRUE");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_1","Products");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_2","Services");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_TYPE_1","BAR");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_TYPE_2","BAR");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_FONT_1","Arial|PLAIN|8");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_FONT_2","Arial|PLAIN|8");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_DATA_1","12|43|50|45|30");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_DATA_2","-10|41|48|39|36");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BORDER_TYPE_1","RAISED"); chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BORDER_TYPE_2","RAISED");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BAR_STYLE_1","ff00");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BAR_STYLE_2","ff");
chartLoader.setParameter("BARCHART_BARSPACE","1");
chartLoader.setParameter("LEFT_MARGIN","0.15");
chartLoader.setParameter("CHART_FILL","ffcc00");
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_NEGATIVE_STYLE_2","RED");
chartLoader.setParameter("YLABEL_VERTICAL","TRUE");
// create chart
Chart chart=chartLoader.buildChart();

[VB.NET]

' define variable
dim chartLoader as ChartLoader = new ChartLoader()
' set chart parameters
chartLoader.setParameter("TITLECHART","Sales 2002")
chartLoader.setParameter("XLABEL","Month")
chartLoader.setParameter("YLABEL","Million $")
chartLoader.setParameter("XSCALE_MIN","0")
chartLoader.setParameter("XSCALE_MAX","5.5")
chartLoader.setParameter("YSCALE_MIN","-15")
chartLoader.setParameter("BIG_TICK_INTERVALX","1")
chartLoader.setParameter("BIG_TICK_INTERVALY","10") chartLoader.setParameter("XAXIS_LABELS","June|July|Aug.|Sept.|Oct.|Nov.|Dec.")
chartLoader.setParameter("CERO_XAXIS","LINE")
chartLoader.setParameter("YAXIS_INTEGER","TRUE")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_1","Products")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_2","Services")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_TYPE_1","BAR")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_TYPE_2","BAR")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_FONT_1","Arial|PLAIN|8")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_FONT_2","Arial|PLAIN|8")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_DATA_1","12|43|50|45|30")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_DATA_2","-10|41|48|39|36")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BORDER_TYPE_1","RAISED") chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BORDER_TYPE_2","RAISED")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BAR_STYLE_1","ff00")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_BAR_STYLE_2","ff")
chartLoader.setParameter("BARCHART_BARSPACE","1")
chartLoader.setParameter("LEFT_MARGIN","0.15")
chartLoader.setParameter("CHART_FILL","ffcc00")
chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_NEGATIVE_STYLE_2","RED")
chartLoader.setParameter("YLABEL_VERTICAL","TRUE")
' create chart
dim mychart as Chart mychart=chartLoader.buildChart()

 

You can also read the parameters directly from a file:

[c#]

// define variable
ChartLoader chartLoader= new ChartLoader();
// set chart parameters
chartLoader.loadFromFile("params.txt",true);
// create chart
Chart chart=chartLoader.buildChart();

In all cases the steps are:

  1. Create a chart loader..
  2. Set the parameters or load them from file
  3. build the chart

 

Exporting the chart to gif, png or jpg

RChart can create the following image files: JPG, PNG and GIF. This can be done by executing chart.saveToFile(filename,format), where format can be "JPEG", "PNG" of "GIF".

[c#]

// define variable
ChartLoader chartLoader= new ChartLoader();
// set chart parameters
chartLoader.loadFromFile("params.txt",true);
// create chart
Chart chart=chartLoader.buildChart();
chart.saveToFile("chart.gif","GIF");

 

Chart Listener (implementing actions)

If you want to receive an event when the user click on one of the bars or points you must implement the EventListener interface. The interface has only one method:

void userClick(String serie,int point);

which will be executed when the user clicks on the points or bars of you chart. In this case the method is executed and receives:

  1. serie: name of the serie the clicked point belongs to.
  2. point: index of the point which has been clicked (starting at 1).

You must also set the listener like this:

ChartControl.eventListener=yourListener;

 

Updating the chart

 

If you need to refresh you chart every X seconds to display changing data you can do it like this:

  1. Create and display your chart as usual.
  2. Update the values for example using chartLoader.setParameter("SERIE_DATA_1","12|43|50|45|30");
  3. rebuild chart with chartLoader.buildChart();
  4. refresh the form or window using the Refresh() method.

 

Recompiling RChart

In order to recompile RChart you can use the following command:

csc.exe /unsafe /reference:system.dll /reference:system.data.dll /reference:System.Drawing.dll /reference:System.Windows.Forms.dll /target:library /out:rchart11.dll /nologo /debug- ODBCSource.cs Axis.cs AxisLabel.cs AssemblyInfo.cs ChartMapWebControl.cs BarDataSerie.cs BarPlotter3D.cs Chart.cs ChartComponent.cs ChartListener.cs ChartLoader.cs CurvePlotter.cs Legend.cs LineDataSerie.cs LinePlotter3D.cs LinePlotter.cs LogScale.cs MaxMinDataSerie.cs PieDataSerie.cs Plotter.cs RadarPlotter.cs RMatrix.cs Scale.cs Title.cs Vector.cs FillStyle.cs DataSerie.cs LineStyle.cs BarPlotter.cs PiePlotter.cs HAxisLabel.cs VAxisLabel.cs Polygon.cs Util.cs RValue.cs ChartControl.cs ChartWebControl.cs EventListener.cs

If you just want to recompile the example application:

csc.exe /unsafe /reference:system.dll /reference:system.data.dll /reference:System.Drawing.dll /reference:System.Windows.Forms.dll /reference:rchart11.dll /out:chartviewer11.exe /nologo /debug- Main.cs ChartViewer.cs