Tag Archives: chart

Custom Grid Drawing in Charting for JavaScript

Posted on by

In this blog post we will look in short at the steps to build this JavaScript area chart with custom grid:

The line chart uses DateTimeSeries for the data and a standard GridType for the major grid lines. The auxiliary grid lines among them are made with custom drawing: we will discuss in details the code for that.

The sample uses MindFusion Charting library for JavaScript, which also supports TypeScript.

You can see the sample online at https://mindfusion.eu/samples/javascript/chart/CustomGrid/DateTimeSeries.html

Continue reading →

JavaScript Diagram with Chart Nodes

Posted on by

In this blog post we will create DiagramNode instances that render a chart. The charts get resized according to the size of the node. We will use two MindFusion libraries for JavaScript – Charting and Diagramming. You can run the sample online from this link:

I. Project Setup

We will use a web page that will hold the HTML Canvas element that we need in order to render the diagram:

<div style="width: 100%; height: 100%; overflow: scroll;">
    <canvas id="diagram" width="2100" height="2100" style="background:#f0f0f0;">
        This page requires a browser that supports HTML 5 Canvas element.
    </canvas>
</div>

We give the diagram’s Canavs big width and height and we also provide an id. The id is important because we will need to access the Canvas from code.

We add the scripts that we need in order to use the Charting and Diagramming libraries:

<script src="Scripts/MindFusion.Common.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="Scripts/MindFusion.Diagramming.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="Scripts/MindFusion.Charting.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

We add the references at the end of the web page, just before the closing BODY tag. We also need to add a reference to a JavaScript file that will hold the code for our sample. We name it “PieNode.js”.

II. The Diagram

In the code-behind file we create a diagram instance. We use the DOMContentLoaded event to initialize our diagram:

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function ()
{
// create a Diagram component that wraps the "diagram" canvas
diagram = MindFusion.Diagramming.Diagram.create(document.getElementById("diagram"));
diagram.setBehavior(MindFusion.Diagramming.Behavior.LinkShapes);
diagram.setLinkHeadShapeSize(2);
diagram.setBounds(new Rect(0, 0, 2000, 2000));

// draw a pie when the user creates a node
diagram.addEventListener(Events.nodeCreated, onNodeCreated);

});

The Behavior enumeration lists various modes of behavior for the diagram. We choose Behavior.LinkShapes, which creates nodes, when the mouse is dragged
over an empty area and connects the nodes if the mouse is dragged from an existing node. We set tbe bounds of the diagram to a big Rect which guarantees that the user can draw nodes anywhere on the visible area. When the user draws towards the edge of the browser, the diagram control expands automatically.

Finally, we add an event handler for the nodeCreated event.

//nodeCreated event handler
function onNodeCreated(sender, args)
{
	var node = args.getNode();
	
	var nBounds = node.getBounds ();
	var topLeftCoord = diagram.docToClient(nBounds.topLeft());
	var bottomRightCoord = diagram.docToClient(nBounds.bottomRight());
	.......................................................
}

At first we get the node that was created. Then we need to get its actual size, for which we use the docToClient method that converts between diagram and browser measure units. We get the two coordinates of the node’s bounding rectangle.

We create then a Canvas, which takes the size of the node’s rectangle:

............................................
.....................................................
var pieChartCanvas = document.createElement('canvas');
pieChartCanvas.width = bottomRightCoord.x - topLeftCoord.x;
pieChartCanvas.height = bottomRightCoord.y - topLeftCoord.y;

We then add this temp canvas to the body of the web page and call a method “createPie” where we draw the pie chart. Once the chart is drawn we get the URL of the image and set is to the node with the setImageLocation method. We remove the Canvas from the tree with the elements because we want to use for the next node.

//create a temporary Canvas for the pie chart
//to draw itself upon
document.body.appendChild(pieChartCanvas);
createPie(pieChartCanvas);
var pieImageLocation = pieChartCanvas.toDataURL();
node.setImageLocation(pieImageLocation);
document.body.removeChild(pieChartCanvas);

III. The Chart

We create a pie chart in the Canvas provided to the createPie method:

//draw a pie chart on the provided canvas
function createPie(pieChartCanvas)
{
	var pieChart = new Controls.PieChart(pieChartCanvas);
	pieChart.startAngle = 45;			
	pieChart.showLegend = false;
	pieChart.title = "Sales";
	pieChart.titleMargin = new Charting.Margins(0, 10, 0, 0);
	pieChart.chartPadding = 3;
...........................

We set some appearance properties to make the chart look the way we want – change the start angle of the pie, add a title and title margin, hide the legend. Then we create a PieSeries which holds the data and the labels of the pie. We assign the PieSeries to the series property of the pie chart:

// create sample data
var values = new Collections.List([20.00, 30.00, 15.00, 40.00]);
pieChart.series = new Charting.PieSeries(
	values,
	new Collections.List(["20", "30", "15", "40"]),
null);

We style the chart with an instance of the PerElementSeriesStyle class, which colors all elements of a Series with the consequtive Brush and stroke from its brushes and strokes collections. Then we adjust the dataLabelsFontSize to match the size of the canvas. We make the labels be drawn with a white brush using the dataLabelsBrush property. Finally we call draw to render the pie.

var brushes = new Collections.List(
		[
			new Drawing.Brush("#0455BF"),
			new Drawing.Brush("#033E8C"),
			new Drawing.Brush("#F24405"),
			new Drawing.Brush("#F21905")
		]);

	var seriesBrushes = new Collections.List();
	seriesBrushes.add(brushes);

	var strokes = new Collections.List(
		[
			new Drawing.Brush("#c0c0c0")
		]);

	var seriesStrokes = new Collections.List();
	seriesStrokes.add(strokes);

	pieChart.plot.seriesStyle = new Charting.PerElementSeriesStyle(seriesBrushes, seriesStrokes);
	pieChart.theme.highlightStroke = new Drawing.Brush("#000063");
	pieChart.theme.dataLabelsFontSize = pieChartCanvas.height/20;
	pieChart.theme.dataLabelsBrush = new Drawing.Brush("#FFFFFF");

	pieChart.draw();

And with that the sample is ready. You can download the source code together with all MindFusion JavaScript libraries used from:

https://mindfusion.eu/samples/javascript/diagram/PieNodes.zip

About Diagramming for JavaScript: This native JavaScript library provides developers with the ability to create and customize any type of diagram, decision tree, flowchart, class hierarchy, graph, genealogy tree and more. The control offers rich event set, numerous customization options, animations, graph operations, styling and themes. You have more than 100 predefined nodes, table nodes and more than 15 automatic layout algorithms. Learn more about Diagramming for JavaScript at https://mindfusion.eu/javascript-diagram.html.

About Charting for JavaScript: MindFusion library for interactive charts and gauges. It supports all common chart types including 3D bar charts. Charts can have a grid, a legend, unlimited number of axes and series. Scroll, zoom and pan are supported out of the box. You can easily create your own chart series by implementing the Series interface.
The gauges library is part of Charting for JavaScript. It supports oval and linear gauge with several types of labels and ticks. Various samples show you how the implement the gauges to create and customize all popular gauge types: car dashboard, clock, thermometer, compass etc. Learn more about Charting and Gauges for JavaScript at https://mindfusion.eu/javascript-chart.html.

Combination Chart in JavaScript

Posted on by

In this blog post we will use the Charting for JavaScript library to create the chart that you see below:

This is a combination chart has one line series and two bar series drawn in stacks. We will use the Dashboard control to combine the building elements of the chart: data series, legend, axes, title and plot.

I. HTML Setup

We need an HTML Canvas element for the chart to draw itsself onto. It is important that we give it an id. The Canvas element will render the chart and its position and size will determine where and how big the chart will be drawn.

<canvas id="dashboard" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; display: block;"></canvas>

The Dashboard control needs the MindFusion.Charting.js library. We also need the MindFusion.Drawing module for presentation classes like brushes, pens etc. We include reference to these files at the end of the web page, before the closing BODY tag:

<a href="http://Scripts/MindFusion.Common.js">http://Scripts/MindFusion.Common.js</a>
<a href="http://Scripts/MindFusion.Charting.js">http://Scripts/MindFusion.Charting.js</a>

The two library JavaScript files are in a subfolder called Scripts. We prefer to keep the JavaScript code for the combination chart separate from the web page and we include one final JS reference:

<a href="http://CombinationChart.js">http://CombinationChart.js</a>

This is the code-behind file where we will write all code that creates and customizes the combination chart.

II. Creating the Dashboard and General Chart Settings

We add mappings to the chart and drawing namespaces that we want to use. If your IDE supports Intellisense you can also add a reference to the Intellisense file.

/// 
var Charting = MindFusion.Charting;

var Controls = Charting.Controls;
var Collections = Charting.Collections;
var Drawing = Charting.Drawing;
var Components = Charting.Components;

The Dashboard class requires and HTML element in the constructor. We get the Canvas from the web page with the help of its id:

// create the dashboard
var dashboardEl = document.getElementById('dashboard');
dashboardEl.width = dashboardEl.offsetParent.clientWidth;
dashboardEl.height = dashboardEl.offsetParent.clientHeight;
var dashboard = new Controls.Dashboard(dashboardEl);

The Dashboard control is a container for all elements of a dashboard. In order to render a chart, we need a Plot element that can visualize data. We create an instance of the Plot2D class:

var plot = new Charting.Plot2D();
plot.gridType = Charting.GridType.Horizontal;
plot.gridColor1 = plot.gridColor2 = new Drawing.Color.fromArgb(200, 243, 244, 254);

Then we specify that the plot will render a horizontal grid with light gray grid lines. Each Plot2D has a seriesRenderers property that stores all -SeriesRenderer -s that are responsible for drawing correctly the data series according to their type – LineSeries BarSeries PieSeries etc. More about that later.

III. Data Series and Renderers

Each data series is represented by a class that corresponds to its type. MindFusion Charting for JavaScript has a variety of ISeries classes, some of whom can be used in different chart types. We will first use the BarSeries class to create one of the series that render bars:

// data for first bar series
var barSeries1 = new Charting.BarSeries(
		new Collections.List([9, 11, 13, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 29, 32, 33, 36, 41, 46, 49, 55, 57, 58, 61, 63]), //y
		null, null,
		new Collections.List(["1999", "2000", "2001", "2002", "2003", "2004", "2005", "2006", "2007", "2008", "2009", "2010", "2011", "2012", 
		"2012", "2013", "2014", "2015", "2016", "2017", "2018"]));

The BarSeries constructor requires several arguments. The first one is the data list, the second are lists with the top and inner labels, which we do not use. The last parameter are the labels for the X-axis and we set here the desired labels.

Then we set the title property of the BarSeries – it is important because it will render as a legend item.

barSeries1.title = "Total amount of goods sold";

We create then another series for the top row of bars. We don’t need any labels any more so we use now a simple Series2D instance:

var barSeries2 = new Charting.Series2D(
		new Collections.List([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]),//x
		new Collections.List([3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 7, 6, 8, 15, 17, 21, 19, 18, 17, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22]),//y
		null);

barSeries2.title = "Extra production to meet demand";

The series need a SeriesRenderer that can draw them. There are different SeriesRenderer -s for the different types of series. The different SeriesRenderer instances support different ISeries classes.

In our case we want a stack bar chart and we use the BarStackRenderer . Each SeriesRenderer accepts a list with the Series instances it must render. Here is the code for the stack bars:

// draw bars
var barRenderer = new Charting.BarStackRenderer(new Collections.ObservableCollection([barSeries1, barSeries2]));
barRenderer.seriesStyle = new Charting.PerSeriesStyle (new Collections.List([new Drawing.Brush("#230A59"), new Drawing.Brush("#3E38F2")]));
barRenderer.barSpacingRatio = 0.7;

The different SeriesRenderer instances have different sets of properties that allow you to customize how the data series will be drawn. Here we use the barSpacingRatio to specify the thickness of the stack bars.

As we mentioned earlier, the Plot2D class has a seriesRenderers property where we can add the different SeriesRenderer -s that we want to show. We add the BarStackRenderer add graphics to plot
plot.seriesRenderers.add(barRenderer);

The procedure is the same for the line chart. We create another Series2D instance:

// sample data for line graphics
var lineSeries = new Charting.Series2D(
				new Collections.List([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19]),//x
				new Collections.List([7, 9, 12, 15, 18, 23, 24, 27, 35, 41, 46, 49, 53, 55, 58,  61, 63, 66, 67, 69 ]),//right-y
				null);
lineSeries.title = "Peak demand";

We give it a title and create a LineRenderer that will render this series:

// draw lines
var lineRenderer = new Charting.LineRenderer(
				new Collections.ObservableCollection([lineSeries]));
lineRenderer.seriesStyle = new Charting.UniformSeriesStyle(new Drawing.Brush("#ffffff"), new Drawing.Brush("#ffffff"), 6);

Finally we add the LineRenderer to the seriesRenderers collection of the Plot2D instance.

plot.seriesRenderers.add(lineRenderer);

You might have noticed that we also set the seriesStyle property in both the BarStackRenderer and the LineRenderer classes. This is the property that specifies how the chart series will be painted. There are different classes that derive from SeriesStyle All of them concern a different pattern of applying brushes and pens to the element of a Series We use here an instance of the PerSeriesStyle class that accepts lists with brushes and strokes and applies one consequtive brush and stroke to all elements in the corresponding Series . The LineRenderer uses the UniformSeriesStyle , which accepts just two Brush instances as arguments and applies them to fill and stroke all elements in all Series instances in the SeriesRenderer .

IV. The Axes

The chart axes are instances of the Axis class. We use their min , max and interval properties to specify the numeric data of each of the two axes that our dashboard will have – X and Y:

// create axes
var xAxis = new Charting.Axis();
xAxis.interval = 0;
xAxis.minValue = -1;
xAxis.maxValue = 20;
xAxis.title = "";

// create axes
var yAxis = new Charting.Axis();
yAxis.interval = 10;
yAxis.minValue = 0;
yAxis.maxValue = 100;
yAxis.title = "Cost of goods in mlns of USD";

Then we specify to the Plot2D that the Axis instances we created are its X and Y axes:

plot.yAxis = yAxis;
plot.xAxis = xAxis;

As you might have guessed, the Axis need Renderer-s to render them. They are called respectively XAxisRenderer and YAxisRenderer .

// create renderers for the two axes
var xAxisRenderer = new Charting.XAxisRenderer(xAxis);
xAxisRenderer.margin = new Charting.Margins(0, 0, 0, 10);
xAxisRenderer.labelsSource = plot;
xAxisRenderer.showCoordinates = false;


var yAxisRenderer = new Charting.YAxisRenderer(yAxis);
yAxisRenderer.margin = new Charting.Margins(10, 0, 0, 0);

The renderers have various properties for specifying how the axes will be rendered. We use margin to add some space around the two axes.

Finally, we use the layoutBuilder property of the Dashboard class to create a GridPanel that will correctly measure and arrange all building blocks of our cobination chart:

dashboard.layoutBuilder.createAndAddPlotAndAxes(
		plot, null,
		[yAxisRenderer],
		[ xAxisRenderer ],
		null);

V. The Legend

As we said, the legend items are taken from the title property of each Series . We use a LegendRenderer to render the legend and set some of its properties:

// add legend
var legendRenderer = new Charting.LegendRenderer();
legendRenderer.content = new Collections.ObservableCollection([barRenderer, lineRenderer]);
legendRenderer.background = new Drawing.Brush("#d0d3fb");
legendRenderer.borderStroke = new Drawing.Brush("#BDBFAA");
legendRenderer.showTitle = false;
legendRenderer.horizontalAlignment = Components.LayoutAlignment.Far;

The content property of LegendRenderer allows us to specify a collection of SeriesRenderer instances. This way we can have one legend for series of different kinds. We don’t need a title for our legend, so we set showTitle to false.

The LegendRenderer requires no special positioning in the dashboard layout, so we simple add it to the rootPanel of the Dashboard and let it handle its easure and placement:

dashboard.rootPanel.children.add(legendRenderer);

VI. The Title and Subtitle

The title is an instance of the TextComponent class:

var tc = new Components.TextComponent();
tc.text = "STEADY GROWTH";
tc.fontSize = 20.4;
tc.horizontalAlignment = Components.LayoutAlignment.Near;
tc.margin = new Charting.Margins(100, 10, 0, 0);
dashboard.layoutPanel.children.add(tc);

It has various appearance properties. Just like the LegendRenderer the TextComponent can be added directly to the children of the layoutPanel.

Now that we’ve made all arrangements for the chart let’s not forget to call the draw method that will render the chart on the screen:

dashboard.draw();

That was everything. You can see an online demo of the chart here.

You can download the full source code of this combination chart in JavaScript together with all used libraries from here:

Combination Chart in JavaScript Full Code

About Charting for JavaScript: MindFusion library for interactive charts and gauges. It supports all common chart types including 3D bar charts. Charts can have a grid, a legend, unlimitd number of axes and series. Scroll, zoom and pan are supported out of the box. You can easily create your own chart series by implementing the Series interface.
The gauges library is part of Charting for JavaScript. It supports oval and linear gauge with several types of labels and ticks. Various samples show you how the implement the gauges to create and customize all popular gauge types: car dashboard, clock, thermometer, compass etc. Learn more about Charting and Gauges for JavaScript at https://mindfusion.eu/javascript-chart.html.

MindFusion Releases Xamarin Charts

Posted on by

MindFusion Xamarin Chart has been released with the complete set of features needed to create and customize a wide selection of charts. The control boasts a variety of chart types like radar, polar, line, bubble, bar, column, doughnut, step, scatter etc. Part of the library are also a dashboard component and a component for financial charts.

3D Xamarin Chart

3D Xamarin Chart

Each chart type exposes numerous options to be customized in order to answer fully the requirements of the user. The control is packed with many samples that demonstrate different aspects of a chart type and offer ready-to-use code. The API is documented in details, with helpful tutorials and guides.

The chart component supports flexible data interface, which allows any data source to be used as a provider of chart data as long as it implements the Series interface. Predefined are a set of the most common data sources like XML, numeric lists, DateTime values, SQL database fields.

The innovative approach to styling lets developers control each aspect of the chart’s looks. They can alter the styling on the tiniest elements or concentrate on the bigger picture and create a global theme which can be reused.

Xamarin Bubble Chart

Xamarin Bubble Chart

The component is free to try without feature restrictions for a period of 60 days. Each license includes 12 month upgrade subscription. You can find out more about MindFusion Xamarin chart component at http://mindfusion.eu/xamarin-chart.html

About MindFusion: MindFusion has provided quality software tools for thousands of organizations and individuals for over a decade. With focus on lean software design and excellent technical support, MindFusion has been preferred by many Fortune 500 companies and world-known names from all industries and fields of business. MindFusion programming components are easy to use, with plenty of options to be customized and make development much faster and successful.

MindFusion.WinForms Pack, 2016.R2

Posted on by

MindFusion suite of WinForms controls has just been released and boasts a variety of new features to make you build WinForms applications faster and easier. Here is a review of the new version:

MindFusion Chart Control MindFusion.Charting

New data model

Data that should be drawn in charts is read through an interface called Series, whose instances can be assigned to the Series properties of Chart and SeriesRenderer classes. You can implement this interface in your own model classes to avoid duplicating data. The library includes several pre-defined series classes that let you specify data via IList or array objects.

Different series types in a single plot

The new data model allows adding different series types to a single plot

New rendering model

Chart graphics are drawn inside Plot components by SeriesRenderer-derived objects. Each plot can contain multiple series renderers from same or different types. For example, you can draw area, line and bar graphics in same plot by adding AreaRenderer, LineRenderer and BarRenderer objects to its SeriesRenderers collection. Chart controls automatically generate a series renderer of appropriate type for their Series.

Dashboard

The Dashboard control can contain multiple plots, axes, legends, images, gauges and text blocks arranged in dynamic layout. Individual components can be added to dashboard’s default RootPanel or LayoutPanel containers, or for more complex layouts add intermediary panels such as GridPanel and StackPanel to the default ones. To show different types of chart graphics, add Plot2D to draw in 2D Cartesian coordinate system, Plot3D for 3D Cartesian system, and PolarPlot for polar coordinate system. To draw horizontal or vertical axes, add respectively XAxisRenderer and YAxisRenderer objects. To show gauges, add LinearGaugeRenderer or OvalGaugeRenderer, whose Gauge property contains the gauge model definition.

The new WinForms Chart has a built-in dashboard control.

The new WinForms Chart has a built-in dashboard control.

Print and export

The Dashboard control and Chart controls that derive from it expose Print and PrintPreview methods for printing on paper. Call the ExportImage and CreateImage methods to generate bitmap image of the dashboard. The ExportPdf method exports the chart to a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. The ExportSvg method exports the chart to an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file.

Styling

Values of appearance properties can come from several places in the component hierarchy. SeriesRenderer-derived objects can use attributes from their local SeriesStyle, from plot’s SeriesStyle, or from the *Series properties in current Theme. Component classes use either their local properties or ones defined in the theme. By default, appearance properties in SeriesRenderer > and Component > classes have null values, which makes the drawing code use values from the theme.

A rich choice of styling options are available

A rich choice of styling options are available

MindFusion WebForms Diagrammer MindFusion.Diagramming

Free-form nodes

A FreeFormNode collects all points from users’ mouse or touch input and displays them as node’s outline. To let users draw free-form nodes interactively, set Behavior to DrawFreeForms or LinkFreeForms. Use the Points property of FreeFormNode to get or set outline points programmatically. If the Closed property is set, the node is drawn as a closed shape and its interior filled, or otherwise the node is drawn as a poly-line. If the distance between first and last points drawn by user is shorter than AutoCloseDistance, the node’s Closed property is automatically set to true.

Free form nodes are drawn with the mouse

Free form nodes: just draw the node with the mouse and the control understands the shape you want

LinkLabel edit events

LinkTextEditing and LinkTextEdited events are now raised also when the user edits a LinkLabel. The Label property of the respective event-arguments class identifies the LinkLabel that is being edited. Label is a null reference if the user is editing link’s Text value.

keyboard16x16MindFusion Virtual Keyboard

MindFusion Virtual Keyboard has been initially added to MindFusion Pack for WinForms.

The WinForms virtual keyboard control: extended layout

The WinForms virtual keyboard control: extended layout

WPF Reporting ToolMindFusion.Reporting

Improved charts
MindFusion.Reporting now uses the new MindFusion charting engine to display charts in reports. The presentation of the charts has been greatly improved (particularly when resizing the charts).

Pie charts in a WinForms report

Pie charts in a WinForms report

Spreadsheet-16x16MindFusion.Spreadsheet

New and improved charts
MindFusion.Spreadsheet now uses the new MindFusion charting engine to display charts in worksheets. Along with the improved appearance (particularly when resizing the charts), the following new features have been added:

  • New Candlestick chart type;
  • New BarOverlayed and ColumnOverlayed chart types;
  • Several new legend position types;

Zoom
The worksheets can now be zoomed in and out through the new Zoom property.

Charts in a spreadsheet

The new chart engine makes spreadsheets even more appealing

MindFusion clients can download the installer for the latest version from the clients area on MindFusion website.

A direct link to download the WinForms pack is available from here:

Download MindFusion WinForms Pack 2016.R2

Updated assemblies are also available as MindFusion.Pack NuGet package.

About MindFusion.WinForms Pack: A rich set of programming components that provide WinForms developers with the complete list of features to build even the most complicated business applications fast and easy. The components integrate seamlessly and provide with a mouse click functionality that takes months to develop. Each control boasts various samples and tutorials, extensive documentation and numerous customization options that make it suitable for every type of software and scenario.

Further details about each component in the pack are available from MindFusion website:

Use this link to buy a license online. All components are royalty-free.