.net CHARTING Support & Knowledge Base

Accepted Payment Methods

Support — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:55:09 GMT

QUESTION

What credit card payment options are available? Are purchase orders accepted?

ANSWER

We can accept purchase orders however such orders are not fulfilled until after payment is received. To start the process, please place an order through our online store at https://www.dotnetcharting.com/store/ and select the 'check' payment option. You will be issued an orderid along with your invoice and payable details via email.

Once payment is received your purchase key will be issued. While you are waiting for this process to complete you may use the fully functional free developers version.

We also accept Visa, Mastercard, USD checks and USD Money Orders for payments. When paying via credit card, orders are fulfilled within one business day.

The license key is not working.

Support — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:10:07 GMT

SYMPTOM

The license key is not working and the .netCHARTING "not for production use" watermark appears on your charts.

Website License Troubleshooter

The key must be placed in the bin folder of your application along with the dotnetcharting.dll.
The license takes effect only when the charts are viewed through the licensed fully qualified domain in the web browser.
The license purchased for a particular domain is specific to YourDomain.com and www.YourDomain.com. The license will not work on sub domains such as 'site1.YourDomain.com' unless a specific key is purchased for such a URL.
Check the NTFS (file level) permissions set for the key file. The anonymous asp.net user context (e.g. aspnet, network service) must have read permissions. Be sure to check the permissions on the license file itself and not just the parent directory.
Ensure that your license key is not corrupt. It is possible during network / FTP transfer or copying the file it has become corrupted. Compare the key you are attempting to use to the original key included with your purchase email.
Ensure that your DLL version matches your license. Right click on the dll, select the version tab, select comments and confirm it is a web site dll.
If you are having an issue with not for production use branding displaying on your charts with a purchased license key deployed, please test the image based chart generation such as a sample a01.aspx included with the bundle. If branding is being removed in that case, please email support@dotnetcharting.com for assistance.
Make sure the license key and dll versions are compatible. If your license does not include a subscription, the DLL version must match the license's version. For 4.x licenses and older, major version licenses are not compatible with different major version dlls. For example a 3.x key will not work with a 4.x dll. and 4.x keys are not compatible with 3.x dlls. If you have an incorrect license key, please contact orders@dotnetcharting.com.

Server License Troubleshooter

If using the automated installation you should only need to copy the license key file as detailed in your purchase email. Permissions and other install steps are completed automatically. If you completed a manual install or suspect you may have a version / key mismatch, please see the additional points below.
Do you have the server version of .netCHARTING? Check to see if your deploymentcontains an install.txt file. You can also right click properties on the dll and select version, then comments to confirm the reference mentions the server version.
Was the .netCHARTING DLL added to the Assembly Cache node in the Microsoft .NET framework Configuration application?
Has the assembly entry been added to your machine.config or web.config file according to step 3 install.txt file?
Does the version used in the entry above match the version of the dll you are using (to determine dll version, r-click, properties, version on the dotnetcharting.dll file)? Also check the comments on the version tab, it should indicate that it is a server dll.
Check the NTFS (file level) permissions set for the key file. The anonymous asp.net user context (e.g. aspnet, network service) must have read permissions. Are read permissions granted on the directory you created for the key and dotnetcharting.dll? Are read permissions granted on the key file itself?
Please double check the steps in the install.txt were followed exactly and in order.
Ensure that your license key is not corrupt. It is possible during network / ftp transfer or copying the file it has become corrupted. Compare the key you are attempting to use to the original key included with your purchase email.
If you are having an issue with not for production use branding displaying on your charts with a purchased license key deployed, please test the image based chart generation such as a sample a01.aspx included with the bundle. If branding is being removed in that case, please email support@dotnetcharting.com for assistance.
Make sure the license key and dll version are compatible. If your license does not include a subscription, the DLL version must match the specific minor version licensed. For 4.x licenses and older, major version licenses are not compatible with different major version dlls. For example a 3.x key will not work with a 4.x dll. and 4.x keys are not compatible with 3.x dlls. If you have an incorrect license key, please contact orders@dotnetcharting.com.

Winforms License Troubleshooter

You must set your license key string value (no binary key file may be used for winforms licenses) as detailed in your Winforms license purchase email.
Make sure the license key and dll version are compatible. If your license does not include a subscription, the DLL version must match the specific minor version licensed. For 4.x licenses and older, major version licenses are not compatible with different major version dlls. For example a 3.x key will not work with a 4.x dll. and 4.x keys are not compatible with 3.x dlls. If you have an incorrect license key, please contact orders@dotnetcharting.com.

Branding / Licensing Silverlight and Javascript Charts

Support — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:06:21 GMT

If you are having an issue with not for production use branding displaying on your charts with a purchased license key deployed, please test the image based chart generation such as a sample a01.aspx included with the bundle. If branding is being removed in that case, please email support@dotnetcharting.com for assistance. If branding is not being removed in that case either, please consulting the trouble shooting kb.

How to maximize Pie chart layout.

Support — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:51:29 GMT

SYMPTOM

How to maximize Pie chart layout.

SOLUTION

There are a number of features that can help improve this scenario.

Labels
When labels are length, label smart wraping can make them smaller as in this example:
http://www.dotnetcharting.com/gallery/view.aspx?id=PieLabelSmartWraping

Pie Sizes
If the pies are in one chart area, the chart will ensure they all end up being the same size. However, to ensure the pies remain the same size across different chart areas despite the labels, a static size can be applied as in this sample:
http://www.dotnetcharting.com/gallery/view.aspx?id=PieCustomSize

Legend
The legend can also interfere with pie sizes. To minimize the impact of the legend try the following

Put the legend in the title
http://www.dotnetcharting.com/gallery/view.aspx?id=PyramidCentered

Float the legendBox:
http://www.dotnetcharting.com/gallery/view.aspx?id=SplineTension

Position the legend on top or bottom so it's laid out horizontally:
http://www.dotnetcharting.com/gallery/view.aspx?id=LegendHeaderStyling

Enabling MS Access Support on x64 / IIS7

Support — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 04:39:56 GMT

Enabling 32 bit applications on x64 with IIS7 to allow for usage for MS Access databases

Note: you can also work with the trial samples using alternate databases including MS SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL see the /database folder in your .netCHARTING installation readme.txt for deployment and database setup details)

To setup MS access support on x64:

Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Select the Sites high level entry in the IIS Manager
Select the web site in use then r-click-->manage web site-->advanced settings
Confirm the Application Pool name in use for the site
Select the Application Pools high level entry in the IIS Manager
Click the application pool ldentified from step 4
Application Pools-->Advanced Settings-->Enable 32-Bit Applications
Set this value to true, click okay.

Silverlight Navigator is not working.

Support — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:37:46 GMT

SYMPTOM

The Silverlight Navigator is not working.

(Step 1) CAUSE / SOLUTION (ClientBin)

One common issue is that the ClientBin folder was not copied to the application. Please ensure that both bin and ClientBin folders and contents are available in your application.

How can the format of values on a chart be controlled?

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:33:42 GMT

QUESTION

How can the format of values on a chart be controlled?

ANSWER

These tutorials will explain the formatting methods:
Formatting Values
Formatting Advanced

How can 2 different axes have the same range?

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:33:09 GMT

QUESTION

How can 2 different axes have the same range?

ANSWER

Scales can be synchronized as detailed in this help topic.

What data sources are supported?

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:32:45 GMT

QUESTION

What data sources are supported?

ANSWER

There are a number of sources .netCHARTING supports natively. They are:

Access (mdb)
MSSQL
MSSQL with stored procedures
Oracle (.net 2.0 Versions only)
MySql (.net 2.0 Versions only)
ODBC (.net 2.0 Versions only)
Excel files
XML files

This however does not limit use of other data sources. To use other sources such as:

Firebird
many more.

Use ADO.NET or other providers to get a data set or data table and use it as the data source. The list of objects you can use as data sources are shown here:

ArrayList
DataSet
DataTable
DataView
Object Collection
HashTable
String (xml file name)

For more information please see this help topic.

Invalid path / permissions

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:32:16 GMT

ErrorMessage: Invalid path / permissions: [c:\yourdirectory\subdirectory] Please confirm the TempDirectory property is set to a valid path and that the anonymous web user (ASPNET/Network Service) has file level (NTFS) write permissions on this directory. If the TempDirectory property is not set, .netCHARTING will attempt to write the temp files in the same directory as the calling script.

This error message could occur if:

1) The provided path does not exist
2) The provided path does not have permissions for the web user to write the chart image.

In Windows 2000 and XP, the default security context ASPNET user would require write permissions on the temp directory defined with the Chart.TempDirectory property. With windows server 2003 the identity of the default application pool is Network Service.

To specify permissions, right-click the folder in windows explorer, select the security tab. Then select the user and permissions. please see this help topic for more information.

If all permissions are set correctly and you still get this message, set full permissions for 'everyone' on the temp directory temporarily to rule out permissions issues.

Lastly, if all else fails, send the following information to support@dotnetcharting.com:

Physical location of aspx page. (C:\wwwroot\....)
Physical location of temp directory.
Line of code where the temp directory is set: (Chart.TempDirectory = "temp")

The cleanup period is set but files in temp directory are not deleted.

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:31:39 GMT

SYMPTOM

The cleanup period is set but files in temp directory are not deleted.

CAUSE

The file cleanup happens when the chart runs (creates a new file). Therefore, the files will not disappear automatically unless this happens.

SOLUTION

Call a page with a chart on it to initiate the file cleanup. For more info please see this tutorial.

Chart image is a small box with a red X on the web page when viewed remotely.

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:30:56 GMT

SYMPTOM

Chart image is a small box with a red X on the web page when viewed remotely.

CAUSE

This happens because the temp directory path specified is a full path such as "c:/web/tempDir". When you right-click on the image > select properties, you can see the path the browser is looking for the image in. Unfortunately when a full path is specified in this way, it cannot be mapped to a web address that allows users to view the image remotely.

SOLUTION

To fix this issue, use a relative path:

TempDirectory = "images";

For more information see this tutorial.

DataEngine: multiple series from different DB Columns.

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:30:33 GMT

QUESTION

How can I create multiple series from different DB Columns?

ANSWER

For version 3.1 and up, please see this help topic.

---

Another way to do this is to query your database separately for each series.

[C#]

DataEngine de = new DataEngine(connectionString);
de.SqlStatement = "SELECT name, dataOne FROM table";
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries());

de.SqlStatement = "SELECT name, dataTwo FROM table";
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries());

[Visual Basic]

Dim de As New DataEngine(connectionString)
de.SqlStatement = "SELECT name, dataOne FROM table"
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries())

de.SqlStatement = "SELECT name, dataTwo FROM table"
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries())

If querying the database multiple times is not desirable this can be accomplished by using a DataTable.

[C#]

DataEngine de = new DataEngine();
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
// Populate the datatable from your database.
dt = (...);
de.Data = dt;
de.DataFields = "YAxis=name,XAxis=DataOne";
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries());

de.DataFields = "YAxis=name,XAxis=DataTwo";
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries());

[Visual Basic]

Dim de As New DataEngine()
Dim dt As New DataTable()
' Populate the datatable from your database.
dt = (...)
de.Data = dt
de.DataFields = "YAxis=name,XAxis=DataOne"
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries())

de.DataFields = "YAxis=name,XAxis=DataTwo"
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(de.GetSeries())

How can each element be shown in the legend box?

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:29:47 GMT

QUESTION

How can each element be shown in the legend box?

ANSWER

One way to do this is to specify the element's legend entry visibility.

[C#]

Chart.DefaultSeries.DefaultElement.LegendEntry.Visible = true;

[Visual Basic]

Chart.DefaultSeries.DefaultElement.LegendEntry.Visible = True

Another way is to specify a palette for the element. For more information on this, please see this help topic.

Could not load file or assembly ''dotnetCHARTING'' or one of its dependencies.

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:29:12 GMT

SYMPTOM

You encounter the following error message when running a page containing a chart.

Could not load file or assembly 'dotnetCHARTING' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

CAUSE

If this appears the first time you try to run a page with a chart or sample, it usually means the app's root folder is not set up as an application.

SOLUTION

WebForms: To resolve this issue, make sure the directory containing the bin folder is set up as an application in IIS manager. For detailed instructions, please see this document.

WinForms: Ensure the dotnetCHARTING.WinForms.DLL file is located in your application's bin folder and add the DLL to your project references in Visual Studio.

How can the element label show its name and other information.

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:28:36 GMT

QUESTION

How can the element label show its name and other information.

ANSWER

The element's text string behaves like a template and uses tokens to represent information. This also applied to virtually all labels. Tokens can be used to represent most object's attributes.

Example
This code demonstrates how to show the element's name and value:

[C#]

Chart.DefaultElement.SmartLabel.Text = "%Name %Value";

[Visual Basic]

Chart.DefaultElement.SmartLabel.Text = "%Name %Value"

See also Tokens Reference for a list of available tokens.

To use other custom information with tokens, custom attributes can be used. Please see the custom attributes tutorial for more information.

How can the label color and fonts be changed on the chart?

Support — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:27:39 GMT

QUESTION

How can the label color and fonts be changed on the chart?

ANSWER

The label tutorial located at [http://www.dotnetcharting.com/documentation/v6_0/Labels.html] shows a chart labels diagram which notes how to access each label through the chart object.

The Label/SmartLabel objects have a Font and Color property which can be set.

Please see the following tutorials for more info:

Colors
Demonstrates how colors are created.
Fonts
Demonstrates how fonts are created

Embedding chart images in emails, word documents and other applications.

Support — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:53:58 GMT

QUESTION

How can I embed a chart image in an email or word document without referencing the URL?

ANSWER

Right click on the image, select 'save picture as' and save it to some location like your desktop. You can then drag and drop the image into emails, word documents and other applications. For more information on emailing charts, see this kb.

The format of the file ''dotnetCHARTING'' is invalid.

Support — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:47:41 GMT

SYMPTOM

Error Message: The format of the file 'dotnetCHARTING' is invalid.

CAUSE

This may happen when using a .net 2.0 .netCHARTING dll in a .net 1.x environment.

SOLUTION

A .net 1.x version is not currently supported, however, you may contact support to request an older version that supports it.

Where can ShapeFiles be found.

Support — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:38:05 GMT

QUESTION

Where can ShapeFiles be found.

ANSWER

Below is a list of websites that offer shapefiles that can be used with dotnetCHARTING. Many others can also be found online as this is a widely used format.

NOAA's National Weather Service	http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/
NationalAtlas.gov	http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html
U.S. Census Cartographic Boundary Files	http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/index.html

ESRI Census 2000 TIGER/Line Data	http://www.esri.com/data/download/census2000_tigerline/index.html
DIVA-GIS DataServer	http://www.diva-gis.org/data/DataServer.htm

Massachusetts Geographic Information System	http://www.mass.gov/mgis/massgis.htm
ESRI Geography Network	http://www.geographynetwork.com/

AGIS - Links to sources of free map and geographic name data	http://www.agismap.com/webgis.html
Canadian GIS Resources	http://gislounge.com/ll/canadianresources.shtml
GIS Data Depot	http://data.geocomm.com
UNC University Libraries - GIS Data Finder	http://www.lib.unc.edu/reference/gis/datafinder/index.html
North American Transportation Atlas Data	http://www.bts.gov/publications/north_american_transportation_atlas_data
WebGIS US one degree data- DLG and DEMs	http://www.webgis.com/dlg_shplatlong.html

Shapefiles for EPI Info	http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo/shape.htm
Arizona GeoServer	http://sco.az.gov/website/geoserver/
Penn State University Map Library	http://www.libraries.psu.edu/maps/

Performance: Time scale chart takes a long time to generate

Support — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:22:17 GMT

SYMPTOM

The chart has many elements with DateTime value and takes a very long time to render.

CAUSE

The likely cause of this is that the DateTime values of each element are not recognized as such and are evaluated as text. This causes a category x axis to be used. When this happens, an axis tick with gridlines and other overhead is created and processed for each data point, which can dramatically increase the chart execution time.

Another possible cause is that the chart is using a true time scale but a very small axis time interval is set which causes many axis ticks to be generated. In that case, removing this setting and allowing the chart to set it automatically will help.

Tip: Enable the chart mentor, it can tell you if your axis uses a true time or category scale.

SOLUTION / SUMMARY

The first step in solving this is to ensure that the x values in your database are of DateTime data type. Then setting Chart.XAxis.Scale = Scale.Time.

If this does not work, use the DataEngine to get a populated series collection first. It's likely the time value will be set as text in the element's name property. Iterate the elements and parse the element name into a DateTime value and set it for Element.XDateTime similar to:

Element.XDateTime = DateTime.Parse(Element.Name);

(While iterating the elements you can also determine whether this is the issue.)

Then set the Element.Name = "". This will help ensure a time scale is used for the axis. When both XDateTime and Name properties of Element are set, specifying the axis scale will be necessary:

Chart.XAxis.Scale = Scale.Time

How do I migrate my code to use the DataEngine?

Support — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:08:19 GMT

QUESTION

How do I migrate my code to use the DataEngine?

ANSWER

The DataEngine object has the same properties as its Chart/Series data property counterparts and is simple to change.

Code without the DataEngine.
This process does not allow access to the individual elements. The chart accesses the database when it begins generating.

[C#]

Chart.DefaultSeries.ConnectionString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["DNCConnectionString"];
Chart.Series.Type = SeriesType.Spline;
Chart.Series.StartDate=new System.DateTime(2002,1,1,0,0,0);
Chart.Series.EndDate = new System.DateTime(2002,1,1,23,59,59);
Chart.Series.SqlStatement= @"SELECT OrderDate,Sum(Total) FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate >= #STARTDATE# AND OrderDate <= #ENDDATE# GROUP BY Orders.OrderDate ORDER BY Orders.OrderDate";
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add();

[Visual Basic]

Chart.DefaultSeries.ConnectionString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("DNCConnectionString")
Chart.Series.Type = SeriesType.Spline
Chart.Series.StartDate = New System.DateTime(2002,1,1,0,0,0)
Chart.Series.EndDate = New System.DateTime(2002,1,1,23,59,59)
Chart.Series.SqlStatement= "SELECT OrderDate,Sum(Total) FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate >= #STARTDATE# AND OrderDate <= #ENDDATE# GROUP BY Orders.OrderDate ORDER BY Orders.OrderDate"
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add()

Code with the DataEngine.
This process uses very similar code as above, but it accesses the database when the de.GetSeries() method is called.

[C#]

DataEngine de = new DataEngine();
de.ConnectionString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["DNCConnectionString"];
de.StartDate=new System.DateTime(2002,1,1,0,0,0);
de.EndDate = new System.DateTime(2002,1,1,23,59,59);
de.SqlStatement= @"SELECT OrderDate,Sum(Total) FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate >= #STARTDATE# AND OrderDate <= #ENDDATE# GROUP BY Orders.OrderDate ORDER BY Orders.OrderDate";
SeriesCollection sc = de.GetSeries();
sc[0].Type = SeriesType.Spline;
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(sc);

[Visual Basic]

Dim de As DataEngine = New DataEngine()
de.ConnectionString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("DNCConnectionString")
de.StartDate = New System.DateTime(2002,1,1,0,0,0)
de.EndDate = New System.DateTime(2002,1,1,23,59,59)
de.SqlStatement= "SELECT OrderDate,Sum(Total) FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate >= #STARTDATE# AND OrderDate <= #ENDDATE# GROUP BY Orders.OrderDate ORDER BY Orders.OrderDate"
Dim sc As SeriesCollection = de.GetSeries()
sc(0).Type = SeriesType.Spline
Chart.SeriesCollection.Add(sc)

As you can see all the same properties are available with the DataEngine as are with Chart.Series. However, using the DataEngine object allows you to get a fully populated series collection with elements that can be manipulated before they are added to the chart.

For more information, please see this kb:
How do I access series and element generated from my database or data table?

web/machine.config file locations.

Support — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:45:13 GMT

QUESTION

Server Installation: Where are the web and machine configuration files located?

ANSWER

The web configuration file is located in your application's root folder and is named: web.config.

The machine.config file is located in x:\<windows>\Microsoft.NET\Framework\<version>\config\machine.config

For more information on configuration files, please see this page.

How to get the r-squared value or a trend line.

Support — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:32:08 GMT

TASK

How to get the r-squared value or a trend line.

SOLUTION

The statistical engine can be used to calculate this value.

Getting the r-squared value of a trend line.
The r-squared value of mySeries will be stored int r2.

[C#]

double r2 = StatisticalEngine.CorrelationCoefDeterminantion("",mySeries).YValue;

[Visual Basic]

Dim r2 As Double = StatisticalEngine.CorrelationCoefDeterminantion("",mySeries).YValue

Disabling the Chart Mentor.

Support — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:52:28 GMT

QUESTION

How can the chart mentor be disabled?

ANSWER

The chart mentor only shows up when Chart.Debug = true. For production environments, it is recommended to disable debug mode. However, to disable the mentor and stay in debug mode the following code can be used in the code section.

[C#]

Chart.Mentor = false;

[Visual Basic]

Chart.Mentor = False