Glossary Item Box
Element Marker Visibility
You can now adjust the visibility of element markers with a single property setting allowing control at the chart, series or individual element level.
Minor Tick Control
The addition of Minor tick marks was well received in version 3.0, now in 3.1 complete control over minor ticks has been provided. In addition a new smart minor tick implementation has been added which automatically determines an ideal minor tick interval based on the major tick interval used. As always, automated settings can be overridden providing an high level control over the appearance and functionality of any given chart.
Smart Scale Breaks With Markers
.netCHARTING’s innovative smart scale break technology has been enhanced to work seamlessly with axis markers.
New Chart Mentor
The chart mentor offers useful tips and samples based on the chart you are creating. It can help you resolve problems and improve the implementation of your chart in the most efficient way.
Specify Line cap scale
The relative scale of the line cap (based on line thickness) can now be set.
Printer Optimized Text rendering
A new setting is available to automatically optimize text output for printing.
Multi-Color Legend Entry Support
When legend entries represent a series containing multiple elements with different colors legend entries will now show with the first 3 colors to ease identification.
Enhanced Token Support
Value tokens can now be used in axis ticks with value axes. In addition, the Xvalue token now automatically populates using Name if another value is not provided. Tokens can now be escaped or excluded by prefixing them with a forward slash.
Gridline defaults in Calculated Axes
Calculated axes now draw gridlines without alternating fills to enhance readability.
Error Bar and Error Value Support
Complete support for error bars and values has been added along with support to automatically populate element error properties from your own database. As part of a comprehensive system for representing errors in collected data, .netCHARTING now supports multiple sub values with rendering as error bars, lines and markers.
HTML Event Attributes
A complete system for adding HTML event attributes has been added. Now you can easily define custom DHTML tool tips, use JavaScript alerts and message boxes, set the status bar text and even define your own custom handling client side handling with ease.
Series Collection Saving and Loading
Enables saving a series collection to a file and later restoring it. This can be useful for reusing common sets of data and also for debugging and troubleshooting to provide test data to support.
Arbitrary Tick Addition
A new shortcut method has been added which enables you to add a list of arbitrary ticks to an axis using a single line of code.
Enhanced Range Tick Rendering
The ChartEngine has been enhanced with regards to ranged tick rendering to ensure optimal spacing and alignment regardless of usage scenario. In addition, ranged ticks can be tailored to your specific needs with advanced interval support, along with line and label customization.
Additional FormatString support
Format strings are used by .netCHARTING to take inputs, such as dates, and format them into different string representations. New custom format string support has been added for Q which returns quarter numbers and O which returns ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.) for both numeric and date values.
Axis Tick Label Angle
Axis ticks are angled if they would otherwise overlap when rendered parallel to the axis. You can now provide a custom angle for labels to use.
Duplicate Axis Support
In addition to the extensive calculation support which enables axis to be calculated and converted using hundreds of built in unit conversions, .netCHARTING now also supports duplicate axis. These axis are the same as the original and are useful when you wish to have the same axis on both sides of a wide chart. In this way, one can read values off the closest axis to the element they are interested in.
Color From Settings
Using built in palette support colors are often automatically assigned by the ChartEngine. New shortcut properties have been added to set colors of series or elements from other series or elements. This can be useful when manually adding calculated elements, for example, and wishing the color to synchronize with a given series.
Time Label Automation
A unique feature which quickly, intuitively, and with a minimum of labels, conveys time related data on the axis. For example when showing 26 months it is not necessary to repeat the year for every month. In this scenario, the automation feature will automatically render relevant data across “significant date” boundaries. Used in conjunction with ranged tick support Time Label Automation provides a stunning, easy to read, axis that elegantly handles continuous date ranges using indicator arrows.
Additional Data Engine DataType Support
The DataEngine.Data and Series.Data properties now support all objects that implement IEnumerable, ArrayList and HashTable. This enables nearly any data source to be bound to the chart with a single property setting adding to the currently supported DataTable, DataSet, DataView, DataReader, XML and Excel types.
Simple Series Creation per Column
New DataFields support enables the addition of multiple series from a single table using one line of code. With this addition, multiple YValue data definitions are supported in which case each will automatically generate its own series.
Total Series and Total Elements Support
New properties have been provided to return the total series and element counts to aid simplified paging through chart data.
Multiple Chart Area Support
Now you can have multiple independent chart areas within a single chart image. Advanced automatic alignment functionality enables a single axis to span multiple chart areas and automatically align with each other. Now creating perfectly aligned charts with a shared axis is quick and simple. Chart areas can be sized, relatively, by percentage and orientated within a grid layout.
Automatic Drilldown into “Other” data
.netCHARTING offers the ability to limit elements and new series created by its unique SplitBy technology. The result is the automatic creation of an “other” series which contains all data not included in the chart as a single element or new series. Now you can automatically drill down into this “other” data. New limit modes have also been added in addition to limiting the return to the Top x values you can now limit to bottom, exclude top and exclude bottom as well.
Axis Minimum and Maximum support enhanced
Now you can set minimum and maximum scales for log and time scale axis.
Log scale now supports any power
Now you can set the logarithmic base to any power in addition to the default log 10 support. For example base 2, base 5 etc.
Axis Minimum Interval
Set a minimum interval to ensure that the axis does not scale below your unit of business. For example, if you sell units which can not be divided, now you can ensure the axis will at minimum increment by one.
Inverted Scale Support
Creating inverted charts has never been easier! By selecting the inverted scale you can now draw charts from the top down.
Automatic and Custom Time interval Support
Now you can set custom axis intervals even while using the time axis. In addition, the automated interval system has now been enhanced for time axis.
Arbitrary Ticks and AxisMarkers can now affect scale range
.netCHARTING has intelligent automatic scale generation to select the best range possible based on the chart data. Occasionally you may wish axis ticks or AxisMarkers to be included in the automated scale range calculation. Now you can ensure important ticks or markers are always included in your scale with a simple setting.
Smart Scale Breaks
Often a chart has a few outlier data points which result in charts that are not legible for the bulk of the data. For example, if you had a chart of 100 values between 1 and 10 but 2 of the values were over 1,000 you could not accurately determine the values due to a compressed scale. Smart Scale Breaks automatically break the scale to cut out large unused sections so both lower and upper values can be clearly read.
Scale Breaks
In addition to Smart Scale Breaks regular scale breaks can be defined if you wish to break the scale at any arbitrary point.
Element, Axis Marker and Arbitrary Tick Support
Now you can define arbitrary tick marks on the axis with their own gridlines. In addition ticks can be defined for specific elements and axis markers.
Ranged Tick Support
An axis tick typically represents and labels a single value on an axis. Ranged ticks show a range of values on the axis, and are also known as an axis group. For example on a chart of months you could have 12 ticks, one for each month and then 4 ranged ticks showing each quarter. Ranged ticks could also be used to highlight specific data in conjunction with Axis Markers.
New Tick Formatting Options
Now you can set Color, Font / Tick Line & length and Grid Line on a per tick basis.
Axis Tick Ranged Overrides
You can also modify the settings of a range of ticks by value to affect tick formatting for a subset of individual axis ticks.
Image Tick Support
In addition to text or label based ticks you can use images in place of tick labels. For example, you could use a countries flag in place of country name on an axis.
Axis Label and Tick Alignment
New alignment options enable labels and tick alignment to be adjusted to suit your specific needs.
New Axis Orientation
Axis can now be displayed on the top of charts rather than the bottom which is the default. You can also now have multiple axis on the left, right, top of bottom of the chart!
Axis Label Token Support
Now .netCHARTING’s powerful token system can be used in Axis Labels enabling you to dynamically change axis labels based on token values.
Radar Charts Enhanced
Now with multiple radars each radar can have its own axis. In addition, time axis and bubbles are supported on radar charts.
Scatter Charts Enhanced
All series types are now allowed on scatter charts in addition to the previously included bubble and marker support.
Financial Charts Enhanced
Now financial chart types may be used in combination charts and powerful multiple area support provides increased power and flexibly for financial charts.
New Label Alignment support
Now you can adjust label alignment for labels including chart area, title, axis and axis marker labels.
Legend Box Enhancements
Massive enhancements have been made to the legend box including the ability to sort entries, show divider lines between entries, add headers, and add formal legend entries on a per entry basis. Legend boxes can now be positioned arbitrarily on the chart surface, even inside the chart area and can be orientated anywhere around the chart using predefined settings. Multiple legend boxes are now supported with the ability to add entries to any given legend box.
Custom Attribute support for Legend Boxes
In addition to the powerful new visualization options for legend boxes a new data subsystem has been added which supports tokens and custom attributes support. This means you can have your own custom data pulled from a database or set programmatically display in the legend box with ease.
Background Shading Effect
A new background specific shading effect has been added.
Calendar Pattern Support
Now you can define custom calendar patterns to implement axis markers or trim data. Calendar patterns will enable you to highlight a specific event or region of your data which re occurs including marking weekends or other recurring events.
PostDataProcessing Event
A new event has been added which enables developers to programmatically manipulate chart data after it has been processed by the DataEngine but before the chart has been rendered.
SeriesCollection.GetProcessedDataTable
A new method has been added which returns a dataTable of the processed data. This is useful to access the data for other purposes after the ChartEngine has processed it.
Start Date of Year
In addition to the ability to determine the start day of the week for automated week grouping functionality of the DataEngine, you can now use StartDateOfYear to control month start for years and quarters.
Custom Element Attributes
Now you can define any number of custom attributes for your chart elements.
In addition to the extensive built in element attributes such as color, font, line, transparency values, URL and many others, you can set your own custom values to be stored on a per element basis. Enhanced template support enables you to utilize your own custom data in any property that supports element templates such as annotation, URL, tool-tip, and name.
Gauge and Dial Charts
A stunning new gauge / dial chart type has been added. In addition to supporting a single chart, multiple gauges can be added for instant executive dashboard implementations. Many advanced features are supported with this new type including quarter, half or arbitrary sized gauges, with and without clipping, and 3d highlight effects.
Axis Label Marker Support
The new gauge type supports addition of a custom marker on the gauge face using this property.
Cleanup Minimum Age
Continuing the enhancement of the automated cleanup functionality available since the first version release, you can now specify minimum age to prevent deletion of specific files until they reach this age, for example, 30 minutes old.
Date Grouping Calculation Support
The date grouping functionality allows data to be easily grouped by date classes such as months, days, hours, years, quarters etc. It allows the same data to be visualized different ways with no custom programming required. Previously .netCHARTING would automatically aggregate (sum) values but now extensive arithmetic operations are supported including average, minimum, maximum and many more.
New Color Token
Building on the powerful token system a 'color' token has been added. This powerful new feature enables you to maintain color synchronization in drill down charts with ease. In addition, the built-in automated drill down now automatically supports this feature.
ImageMap and ImageMapName Exposed
For those clients that demand complete control .netCHARTING does not disappoint. Version 2.5 exposes the ImageMap text and ImageMap name which, used in conjunction with FileManager, allow you to customize images and independently assign image map data generated by the chart engine.
Per Element Hatch Style Support
Now you can customize elements with hatch styles, ideal for differentiating elements for black and white display or for those who are color blind. In addition to the specific hatch pattern used, you can also define element specific hatch coloring which can be set independent of the item color.
HatchStyle Palette and HatchStyle Palette Name Support
To complement the extensive per element hatch style support, .netCHARTING now provides the ability to define custom groups of hatch styles which are assigned, in order, to elements / series just as a color palette assigns colors. In addition, 5 predefined hatch style palette names are included to quickly and easily assign unique hatch styles using a single setting.
Series Background Support
A new background option has been added for series. This enables powerful background options for the new gauge / dial charts. For example, you could place a photograph of a real gauge in the background and have the needle be set dynamically based on the provided value. .netCHARTING will seamlessly merge the generated needle and background for photorealistic gauge renderings.
Annotation Text Alignment
New alignment support enables you to directly control the alignment of annotations in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Alignment options include left, right, center, top, bottom and middle.
Tiff Image Format Support
Now you can output 'lossless' tiff files with a simple property setting.
Vector Based Image Support
Have you wanted to print massive charts or zoom into the smallest detail without loss of quality? Now you can with native vector image support. Output charts as Enhanced Meta Files (EMF) and scale as large as you wish.
Series Collection Sorting
Now with a single method call you can sort series within the series collection. This new feature is particularly useful for 3D charts where it is advantageous to sort series in order to aid aesthetics such as a 3D area line chart (where keeping smaller series at the front enables them to be seen clearly).
Series Area Line Label Enhancements
Now series area line labels support label alignment similar to the new alignment support added to annotations.
Developer Version SmartBranding Added
The fully functional free developers version is branded not for production use. Typically this does not affect chart elements however with very small charts common in executive dashboards the branding can obscure part of the chart. With version 2.5, .netCHARTING will intelligently vary the branding transparency in such cases to ensure the chart can be visualized effectively in all scenarios.
Enhanced Annotation 'CallOut' Support
In addition to the previously supported top left, top right, bottom right and bottom left callout positioning, annotations now support callouts from the left, right, top and bottom. Combined with the new annotation text alignment features and advanced token system there are thousands of annotation variations now possible.
Custom Element Attributes
Now you can define any number of custom attributes for your chart elements.
In addition to the extensive built in element attributes such as color, font, line, transparency values, URL and many others, you can set your own custom values to be stored on a per element basis. Enhanced template support enables you to utilize your own custom data in any property that supports element templates such as annotation, URL, tool-tip, and name.
Date Grouping Sort
A new option for date grouping is now provided to control the sort order behavior. Date grouping is a powerful feature for grouping values into specific date ranges such as years, quarters, months, days and more.
Data Grid Header Template Support
In addition to stunning chart images, the data represented in the chart can be displayed automatically in a data grid in tabular form. This is useful for meeting accessibility requirements and easily allowing users to copy chart data as text. Now you can have the header set automatically based on chart data with new template support. This is particularly useful for drilldown charts or any chart where data changes dynamically.
Label trimming
Advanced label trimming has been added, allowing you to finely tune the visuals of labels that are too long to display well on the chart. You can now set a maximum length for labels, control the string used to terminate a truncated value e.g. "this is a long." and determine if labels will be truncated from the start, middle or end.
Simple database connectivity just got simpler
Now you can specify the file name of your access database or excel spreadsheet and .netCHARTING will be able to produce stunning charts from it directly with no complicated connection string or additional technical requirements.
Chart URL Mapping Enhanced
Define chart level URL for any surface of the chart to have a hyperlink while maintaining the functionality of any higher level hyperlinks that may be set for elements, legend entries, annotations and more.
Empty Element Handing for DataGrid Values
.netCHARTING has built in support for empty elements and can represent them in a number of different ways visually, or via labels. Now, when empty elements are included in a DataGrid view of your chart data they are seamlessly replaced with your own custom text value as defined with EmptyElementLabel.
Axis Label wrapping
Labels on both the X and Y axis can now be set to automatically wrap horizontally, display on an angle or display perpendicular to the axis.
Axis Label Separators
To make the separation between tick marks clear, particularly when the new wrapping functionality is used, label separators can be added. Options are provided to control the line, style and color for such separators.
Axis Label Rotation
Now you can rotate the Y axis label to read either bottom to top or top to bottom. The ChartEngine will also automatically select the most appropriate setting for each axis if not overridden.
New Palettes
Many new palettes have been added allowing you to chart with a variety of color schemes using one simple setting. As always, you can create your own palettes as well as set palettes at a chart or series level.
Enhanced documentation and Samples
More resources are now available to help you get the most out of .netCHARTING!
Advanced Empty Element Handling
Empty elements have always been handling intelligently and treated differently from 0 elements by .netCHARTING. An empty element is an element with no value which the chart will automatically render breaks for in lines and area lines. New features have been added enabling you to control how empty elements are displayed with custom markers, styles, lines, color, text notation and more! Empty elements may now also be replaced, automatically treated as zero, filled or ignored.
Multicolor Area Lines
This unique feature allows area lines with multiple colors to seamlessly blend together providing powerful visual queues in the chart image.
Annotation Support
A powerful new annotation system has been added which allows for custom messages to be displayed on the chart surface. Annotations may be attached to any element with custom orientation, made clickable and also display tool tips. Annotations accept tokens which are automatically replaced by chart data on the fly from series, axis or element information. Pure image annotations are also supported allowing for image layering with variable transparency.
Bitmap Image Access
To aid in simplified integration with reporting and PDF tools .netCHARTING now has a simple method for obtaining the entire chart as a bitmap.
Advanced Post Processing Support
You can now get the chart image in a bitmap with one simple step allowing for powerful post render operations on the chart. Calculated coordinate information is returned for chart elements allowing for powerful custom image post processing and a simple method is provided to automatically save the file for output.
Legend Image Support
Along with the chart image, you can now access the legend as a separate bitmap. This allows you to use the chart and legend images independently and reference them directly in your page for even more flexible layouts.
Fixed Column Width
By default column / bar width is automatically determined based on the number of elements and size of the chart created. You can now specify a fixed width which is useful when you want a consistent size in different charts or with drill down.
Ranged Area Line
The ranged chart type enables you to set start and end values for a chart. This powerful charting type previously available for other types is now also supported with area lines.
Enhanced Pie Labeling
With .netCHARTING Image is Essential and pie labeling has been further enhanced to ensure optimal alignment.
Enhanced Hotspot Support:
Now even the smallest values are accessible for drilldown, hyperlink or tool tip support with enhanced hotspot support.
Background Bevel Shading
A stunning new background option is supported which creates an attractive bevel on any background.
New Palettes
Additional predefined palettes have been added allowing for simple selection of attractive color schemes. Palettes can be set at a chart or series level (in which case each element takes on a palette color)
New Samples and Documentation
Many new samples have been added and documentation has been enhanced.
Series and Element Level Legend Entries
Now you can easily add legend entries for individual elements or series and control all aspects of legend entries individually. Legend entries can also be removed with a new visible property setting.
Legend Entry ToolTip and DrillDown Support
Legend entries may now be used for tooltip (showing additional data on mouseover) or drill down functionality.
Series Level Palette Support
A new PaletteName property at the series level allows you to have colors assigned on a per element basis within a series with one simple setting. Ideal for creating high impact single series charts the new system also automatically adds legend entries for each element rather than for the single series in such a case.
Axis Tick Label Templates
The powerful .netCHARTING template system has been extended to support full tick label templates. Now you can format and display your data in tick labels exactly as you please.
Enhanced Element Template System
The element template system has been enhanced with many more data values now available for use throughout .netCHARTING.
Format on the fly in Templates
On the fly formatting enables you to embed format string settings for a given template token to ensure the data is represented exactly as you want it without requiring manual formatting.
Automated Series Sorting
Now you can sort elements within a series with a simple method call.
Data Trimming based on set ranges
This powerful new data manipulation method enables you to remove elements outside a specific date or number range.
Series data manipulation with operators
Now series and elements can be manipulated programmatically with arithmetic operators. Add, subtract, multiple and divide any series or element with any other or fixed numbers.
Automatic axis number precision
When the tick mark interval is less than one .netCHARTING will now automatically set the appropriate level of precision for axis numbers.
Enhanced Design Time Support
Now supports declarative code generation and new properties editor GUI sections for customizing chart options. In addition, changes made to the declarative code directly will be reflected in the designer environment.
Selectable First Day Of Week
.netCHARTING's built in date grouping and DataEngine support has further been enhanced with a user definable start day of week. This new setting allows weekly data to be grouped correctly, exactly as you wish, be it Sunday to Saturday, Monday to Sunday or any other permutation.
New Clear Color Settings
New shortcut settings enable the colors to be cleared with a simple property so they may be selectively enabled in a customized fashion.
New Bar Visual Effects
Two stunning new visual effects have been added for 2D bars. These unique visuals add a 3D visual punch to 2D charts. Now you can satisfy your clients with a stunning 3D effect while maintaining the ease of readability you have come to expect from 2D charts.
Enhanced Image Map Support
Image map render order has been improved to more eloquently handle overlapping conditions.
New Bubble Visual Effects
Two new bubble shading options have been added to provide your charts even more visual punch.
Shaded Legend Icon Support
Legend icons are now synchronized with the chart element's shading effects allowing for quick and easy identification of an element from its legend entry.
Maximum Bubble Size Control
You can now control the maximum bubble size and have all bubbles rendered relative to this maximum size.
Per element label controls
Now labels can be controlled on a per element basis with settings for color, font, size, alignment and more!
Enhanced Smart Label Functionality
The label system has been enhanced dramatically and now supports conditional label inclusion depending on spacing, forced label rendering, set vertical rendering and control over label alignment.
Enhanced documentation and Samples
More resources are now available to help you get the most out of .netCHARTING!
Drill Down Support Enables "Clickable" Charts
Complete drill down support is now provided with advanced automatic drill down functionality using our own unique date grouping functionality. Now you can create multi level drill down charts from your own dynamic database in as few as 10 lines of code! Adding drill down support to a chart is as simple as one line - a single property setting! In addition to the automated drill down functionality, complete programmatic control is provided along with a template system for drill down URL to enable passing information on the selected element for subsequent drill down actions. Drill down has never been so simple, or so powerful!
ToolTip Support
Along with drill down support tool tips are now supported on a per element basis. This allows additional information to be displayed when the user rests the cursor over a given element. Through the ToolTip template you can control 30 different values which are automatically set when the chart renders. You can also set the ToolTip automatically from a field in your database with additional information or comments you wish to display to the user but don't want to clutter your chart with.
3D Chart Depth Control
This new property allows you to control the depth of charts when rendered in 3D modes. You can now control the width, length and depth of charts with ease.
Smart Label Support
The new "smart label" system ensures that labels do not collide or overlap even when chart elements are very close to each other. A small pointer is used to reference the element being labeled and the text is rendered on a portion of the chart with space for the label to be displayed. You have complete control over the indicator line color, thickness and style used along with the end cap / pointer included.
Complete Per Element Controls
Now you can control all expects of the chart down to the element level with complete per element controls. Settings include the color, marker, label, url, tooltip, transparency, labeling and much more. Now it is simple to vary colors on a per element basis or make changes to elements programmatically based on their value. For example: iterate through the elements collection and change all elements between 0 and 30 to green, 30-50 to yellow, 50-80 to orange and 80-100 to red. You have complete control over all settings providing an exceptional level of flexibility.
Alternating Axis Grids
You can now set and independently control the axis and alternating axis grids even specifying the background color / image of the axis grids.
Axis Markers
Many times a chart has a unique value which is significant but not directly represented by an element on the chart. For example, it could be a date when a specific promotion began, some other event or a special value (break even point, boiling point etc). With the new axis marker functionality you can mark specific points on any axis and even define ranges (for example weekends). With the advanced marker range background support you can also highlight such areas with any color or image background you wish. Of course you also have complete control of the axis marker line color, thickness and style.
Unlimited Axis and Axis Binding Support
Now unlimited x and y axis are supported for any given chart. Better still, each series can be independently bound to a given axis effectively allow multiple independent charts to display on the same charting surface. This feature is also very useful alongside the powerful combination charting options which allow different chart types to display at the same time in both 2D and 3D views.
New Calculate Axis Support
Along with unlimited axis support comes a powerful new concept in axis creation - the calculated axis. Often charts will display established units such as temperature, distance, weight etc. The calculate axis functionality allows you to create a new axis based on another axis with different units, all with one simple setting. Have a chart of distance in miles? Add a calculated axis with kilometers, yards or feet. Over 1000 different unit conversions are built in and you can define your own functions for unlimited flexibility. Process numeric values: 1, 2 ,3 into numeric names: one, two, three. Process your own conversions with your own custom functions - the possibilities are endless! In addition, you can calculate a new time based axis from one time interface (years) to another (quarters) with the same simple to use system.
Complete Per Axis Controls
Now every feature you can imagine is supported at the axis level with complete per axis controls. Independently set the axis line, background and alternating background, range markers, value markers, tick label overrides, cluster columns per axis, format and culture settings, grid lines, minimum, maximum, interval, padding, orientation, percentage, position (order), scale and much more.
Line Object Support
A new line object enables you to control all aspects of lines used to draw the Title Box, Chart Box, Legend Box, Chart Interior (from 3D mode), smart label pointers and many other areas.
New Background Options
Apply backgrounds to axis markers to highlight a specific range or value on the chart. In addition, backgrounds can be applied to alternating axis grids for a unique and powerful visual impact. The background object has also been enhanced offering new hatch style and hatch color support in addition to the established solid color, gradient, scaled image and tiled image options.
Legend Template Support
Now you can control the order, distribution and appearance of the legend entries with a powerful yet simple to use template system. Include the series name, the series value, and icon along with your own text.
Custom Legend Entries and Icons
Add an unlimited number of custom legend entries with independent text and marker details. This feature is useful for notes on custom markers that have been placed on the chart or to highlight a specific element with additional information. Combined with the new per element controls this functionality enables detailed information to be displayed on customized elements. You can further customize the legend appearance by defining custom legend icons.
Horizontal Cylinder Charting Type
A stunning new horizontal cylinder charting type includes support for percent complete hatching. Cylinder Gantt charts are also possible with the new range support.
Financial Charting Types
Stunning stock charts are now supported with series options for open, close, high, low, financial bar, Candlestick, and High Low Area in Volume chart areas as well as independent price / volume time intervals. New stock specific marker types have been added including split, reverse split, merger, dividend and spin-off. Of course you can specify any custom marker as well on a per element basis.
Donut Charting Type
A visually pleasing new donut charting type has been added. With complete 2D and 3D support this type also allows for transparency control for a very aesthetically pleasing chart.
Extensive New Pie Options
A powerful new labeling system, combined with smart labels, provides some of the most attractive and legible pies ever rendered. Labels can be rendered outside the pie with pointers to the representative slice, render inside the slice when there is room or automatically render inside or outside on best fit and appearance. In addition, pie slices can be individually controlled and exploded with per slice controls for exploded distance.
Range Charting Support
Now bar, cylinder, column and other charts support elements with start and end values. This enables a column that starts at a value greater than zero, for example, and allows for effective and attractive display of ranged data.
Powerful Element Templates
Along with the complete per element controls comes a new template system with 30 template containers. Templates can be controlled on a per element basis and are supported for element value, URL, and ToolTip. For example: %yValue will display the item value as a ToolTip (so when you hover your mouse over the element you will see the value). If you set %yValue for the element value you would see the actual value rendered on the chart. You can also use any number of template containers within any template along with your own text, for example, "Name: %Name, Value: %YValue". Template containers are automatically replaced with the elements name, value etc. when the chart is created.
New Marker System
A powerful new marker system provides an extensive set of 15 marker types in addition to support for any custom marker. Using built in markers you can control the color and size independently on a per marker basis. Markers are now used extensively throughout the product and allow for simple per series or per element customization.
Default Series and Element
A new default series and element allow you to make high level changes to default settings quickly and easily. Settings can take effect for all series on the chart, be overridden for one or more series and then be overridden for any given elements. This powerful new system enables you to have complete control down to the element level when required while maintaining ease of use and quick default settings.
Design-Time Support
Already one of the quickest and easiest solutions to get up and running, new Visual Studio .NET integration enables clients using this powerful IDE to see the chart in design time and observe the actual rendered chart and how it changes in real-time as settings are changed. A new wizard for Visual Studio .NET is also in development to further extend the products ease of use and rapid development for Visual Studio developers and will be available at no additional charge when released.
Updated DataEngine
Our unique DataEngine provides powerful data manipulation and acquisition features enabling you to chart multiple series from your own live database in as little as 8 lines of code! Now you can directly utilize the data engine to create derived series, split series, limit element or derived series returns to the top values and even aggregate "other" series or elements into a dedicated "other" series or element. Work with SQL Statements, Stored Procedures with parameters, Pass your own DataTable / DataSet, or use XML - the choices are endless and you can work with any database accessible within ASP.NET via ADO.NET. You can even chart directly from your own excel spreadsheet!
New DateGrouping Formatting:
You can now have complete control over date formatting, even for automatically generated series and elements created by the DataEngine and DateGrouping system.
Customize DataEngine Generated Series and Elements:
Now you have complete control both by series and element, even when using the advanced DataEngine functionality. Rename generated series, manipulate data, and update settings and visuals prior to creating the chart.
Improved DataGrid Display Options:
You can now control the orientation of the raw chart values for automatic display in a custom datagrid by setting columns by element or series. As always, you have complete control over the position and formatting of the datagrid.
Stock Specific DateGrouping, DataEngine and Drill Down Support:
The data engine supports all charting types from the database / datasource with mappings to any custom field names for expected values. In addition to automatically charting individual elements the DataEngine provides stock specific DateGrouping functionality. With a given element representing as many as 5 specific values (high, low, open, close, volume) the data engine automatically determines an sets the appropriate values as you group by Years, Quarters, Months, Weeks, Days, Hours and Minutes. It even allows for completely automated stock drill down charts with the addition of 1 simple setting.
Automatic Cache Subsystem
Typically charts are rendered in real-time with each request representing different data dynamically with different charts for each client request. However in some cases the same charts are displayed to many clients or the data the charts are based on is infrequently updated. A new cache duration setting can now be used in conjunction with the file name setting which enables the control to automatically determine if a new chart should be rendered or if the previously rendered image should be returned without further processing. The end result is a seamless scalable caching system that enables a given chart image to render only as required by setting one simple property.
Unclustered Cylinder & Bar Support
Clustered cylinders & bars enable values across multiple series to display clustered, in groups, on a per element basis. This allows for easy comparisons between values for a given element across multiple series. Now cylinders and bars support a new unclustered display in 3D modes showing each element behind the next.
Enhanced Transpose Functionality
Now with a single property charts can be transposed, visually exchanging series and element values, without modifying the underlying data. The result is a number of stunning and unique charts including blended transitions. Transpose now supports all available chart types and data combinations providing enhanced flexibility to meet even your most demanding needs.
Chart Area Label
A custom label can now be set for each chart area, enabling you to quickly and easily communicate additional information directly within the chart image. This is particularly useful if you have text that would normally be included in HTML on the same page as your chart, since when the user saves or forwards the chart image that plain text would be lost. Yet with the new chart area label feature it becomes part of the chart image itself. You may also control the font attributes and color used in addition to the text value to ensure the look and feel of your chart is exactly what you desire.
Independent Box Controls
A new box object allow for independent shadow, corner, label line and background customization on a per box basis. Customize the TitleBox and LegendBox to meet your exacting requirements with ease.
Enhanced Calculation Support
Now you can calculate new elements or derived series based by sum, average, median, mode, minimum and maximum. Calculations can run within a given series to product an element or within a series collection to produce a new series. For series calculations new support is added for running sum, running average, running median, running mode, running minimum and running maximum.
Date Scatter Support
In addition to the powerful and automated date grouping functionality, .netCHARTING now supports date scatter. This means you can plot any arbitrary dates relative to their exact position with automatic axis scaling. Choose between years, quarters, months, weeks, days, hours and even minutes with one simple setting!
Quarter & Minute Date Grouping
In addition to the extensive range of date grouping options already available, quarter and minute support has been added. Date grouping automatically aggregates values for a specific date range with no additional development or database coding required!
Gantt Charting Type
The Gantt charting type has been added with stunning 2D and 3D views. Unique to .netCHARTING is the completion indicator which provides a graphical representation of task progress and allows for visual customization.
Axis Numbering Controls
Building on the powerful automated numbering system, .netCHARTING now allows precise control over the axis numbering. Independently control the axis minimum value, maximum value and interval.
Wizard / code Generator
In addition to the extensive suite of samples provided in both C# and VB.NET the .netCHARTING wizard has been enhanced to support both C# and VB.NET code as well.
Axis Overrides
Axis mappings, or overrides, have been added which enable you to define custom labels for numeric values. For example if charting risk you may wish to use none, low, medium ,high in place of 0, 1, 2, and 3. Combined with the new axis numbering controls this feature is particularly powerful.
Excel Data Source Support
Adding to .netCHARTING's seamlessly integrated database support (no more writing database code!) for MS Access and SQL Server, Excel spreadsheets are now supported. That's right, you can now create stunning web based charts directly from your excel spreadsheets using .netCHARTING!
Title Wrapping & Legend Alignment
For long titles the system now automatically wraps to a second line if required. Bottom Legend alignment now supports left justification when more than one element is included and centering when only one element is present for ideally balanced aesthetics.
Automated Series Generation
.netCHARTING's advanced "splitby" functionality allows you to define a single series, generated from your database, and then create additional series splitting on a unique value (For example, show total sales split by customer - each customer would show with its own series). Advanced options are also provided to chart "other" elements aggregated as a single value. Now you can create a 10 series chart dynamically from your database in 6 lines of script!
Bar & Column Effect
Version 1.4 continues to push the visual fidelity of the product forward with a new effect available on bar and column chart types. .netCHARTING maintains incredible ease of use with dynamic database driven charts in a few lines of script while providing the best looking charts of any solution, on any platform!
Negative Value Charts
Full negative number support has been added allowing even complex charting types to display both negative and positive values at the same time. This new feature has been seamlessly integrated and takes effect automatically when negative data is included within any series.
Secondary Y Axis Support
An optional 2nd Y axis can now be added to the right side of a chart and scales as a factor of the original Y axis. For example, a sales chart could represent 2 different currencies by assigning the factor to a currency exchange rate. It would then be simple for values to be read off of the chart in either currency by examining the appropriate Y axis.
Scatter & Bubble Axis Controls
In addition to the control provided by the AxisScale property, two new properties are provided to independently control the scales for the x and y axis for scanner and bubble charts.
Bottom Legend Support
A new legend option is now available which allows for legend to be placed beneath the charting area. This allows for large series names to display cleanly without limiting the width available for the main charting surface.
Series Order Reversal
A new property has been added that enables you to reverse the order of the charted series with 1 easy step. You also have complete control over the positions with the series level position property.
Extruded Pie Support
A stunning new visual effect is available for 2D pie charts. In addition to this new effect, regular 2D pies and true 3D pies are also available.
Size Property
A new shortcut property has been added which enables you to set chart size with a single property.
Chart Level ShowValues
Show values controls if the numeric values for a given element will display on the chart. This new chart level property allows for a default value to be easily controlled. You also can override this setting on a per series basis.
DataGrid Series Name Support
The previous version added datagrid output support for the data values represented on the chart. Now you can also display the series names along with this data and control the name of the column used to display this data.
Date Axis Formatting
The specific date time format can now be controlled for axis that are date / time based.
Logarithmic Axis Scaling
The built in axis scaling options have continued to be enhanced with the addition of a logarithmic scaling option.
Data Table Field Selection
You can now control the fieldnames used when passing series data in a datatable. Options are available for which field to use for the x axis data, y axis data, splitby data, and bubble size data.
AddElement Enhanced
Two new options are available for adding elements to scatter and bubble charts with the addelement method.
New Samples
The included samples have been updated and a new sample has been added to demonstrate creating multiple chart controls programmatically.
Scatter Chart Type
True XY scatter support has been added. This allows both the X and Y axis to plot arbitrary decimal element values. In addition to point, scatter is supported for line and spline charts.
Bubble Chart Type
A unique new charting type which supports 3 data values per point. Bubble works like XY scatter but also supports a third value which controls the bubble size.
Scatter and Bubble Label Options
With the addition of 2 new charting types, powerful new label control options are provided including X, Y, XY, size, and XY size.
Stored Procedure Support
In addition to the built in SqlStatement support the product now allows you to call stored procedures to obtain charting data on a per series basis. Parameters for stored procedures are also supported through the new AddParameter method. A recent addition includes support for raw datatable input on a per series basis if required.
DataGrid Data Output
The included data processing engine performs grouping, aggregation and other calculations. A new DataGrid property has been provided which populates a datagrid of your choice with the tabular data represented in the chart.
Axis Scaling
This new feature ensures that small variations in charting elements are clearly visible. For example if all values were falling between 1000 and 1010 visually you would not see much separation with the axis starting at 0 and ending above 1000. Axis scaling enables the chart axis to scale to the range of the points represented in the chart so the full chart area can be used to reflect the different element values.
Cluster Property
Clustering enables columns to be easily compared by placing them next to each other in a group. This new property allows clustering to be disabled so, for example, so columns can appear behind each other.
Margin Settings
Complete margin controls are now provided for left, top, right and bottom. This allows you to control the amount of space or margin is left between the charting elements and the background. This can be particularly useful for implementing custom borders for your chart in conjunction with the new border background support.
Border Background Support
While extensive background options are already included, a new parameter has been provided to control how background images are handled. By default background images are titled if the image is not large enough to fill the chart area. Now, you can also scale the background to fit the size of the chart. This can be useful when using the background image as a charting border.
Legend and Title Box Style
New style options for the legend and titlebox enable you to control the corners independently from cut, box, or round options.
Initial Release!
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