|
FormChart.Net Version 1.0
(With Complete Design Time Support)
Download
Sample Project
Installation
and Setup Instructions
What is FormChart.Net?
FormChart.Net is a custom user control library that you can use on Windows
Forms to render your data in the sahpe of charts or graphs. Last month we
release our ASPChart.Net
library for drawing graphs and charts. The same library acts as the drawing
engine for this custom user control.
What Functionlaity Is Supported In Current Version?
As it has been mentioned earlier that this component is based on
ASPChart.Net engine, it supports all the features of that library. But
we have taken that library to a higher level. This control provides you
complete design time support. Following are some of the highlights of
this control library.
-
Ability to add the control library to Visual Studio .Net IDE Toolbox
-
Drag and drop of controls from toolbox onto Windows Form designer
-
Complete design time support. This helps in cutting down your development time
by making you type less code.
-
WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) features let you specify all the
appearnace and alignment attributes right from the Properties view of
IDE.
Where Can I User It?
The control has infinite possibilites. You can use it anywhere where you need
to display the information as Pie Charts, Bar Charts, Line Graphs, etc.
How to install it?
We have created a install document. You can download it from our web site and
follow it step by step to get going.
How to use it?
The control is very easy to use like any other .Net windows controls. Drag and
drop the control onto Windows Forms designer, modify the properties to specify
the appearance and alignment you want. And the necessary code will be added to
your CS or VB file.
After you have completed the initial step. There are two more steps that are
needed. Without this control will not function.
-
The control accepts the data as an XML document. In the current version of
control we don't have support for
DataBinding. This support will
be added in next version. For now you will need to create the XML document and
load it in control.
-
The control gives you ability to select option to specify if you want to use
random colors generated by ASPChart.Net drawing engine or you want to specify
your own list of colors. If you select
Random Color generation,
then you don't need to perform any more steps. Otherwise, create a StringCollection
object containing string representation of KnownColor
values. And set to Colors property of this control.
The following code demonstrates the steps we discissed above. For more details,
look at the source code of the attached WinChartApp project.
public ChartForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
barChart2DControl1.LoadData(this.CreateChartData());
if (!barChart2DControl1.UseRandomColors)
{
barChart2DControl1.Colors = this.CreateColorNames();
}
}
public XmlDocument CreateChartData()
{
XmlDocument obXmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
obXmlDoc.Load("BarChartData.xml");
return obXmlDoc;
}
private StringCollection CreateColorNames()
{
StringCollection obColorNames = new StringCollection();
obColorNames.Add("Red");
obColorNames.Add("Blue");
obColorNames.Add("Black");
obColorNames.Add("Pink");
obColorNames.Add("Khaki");
obColorNames.Add("Green");
obColorNames.Add("Gray");
obColorNames.Add("Beige");
obColorNames.Add("Purple");
obColorNames.Add("Yellow");
return obColorNames;
}
Please feel free to send your suggestions directly to us at
softomatix@pardesiservices.com.
|