Category Archives: Sample code

A JavaScript Application for Server Load Monitoring (Continued)

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We continue the ServerLoad tutorial with the diagram.

I. Create and Style The Diagram

We create a new JavaScript file named diagram.js in the Scripts folder of the project and reference it in the HTML.

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

Now, in this file we make some namespace mapping to access easy the classes we need:

var Diagram = MindFusion.Diagramming.Diagram;
var DiagramLink = MindFusion.Diagramming.DiagramLink;
var ShapeNode = MindFusion.Diagramming.ShapeNode;
var Style = MindFusion.Diagramming.Style;
var DashStyle = MindFusion.Drawing.DashStyle;
var Alignment = MindFusion.Diagramming.Alignment;

var Rect = MindFusion.Drawing.Rect;
var LayeredLayout = MindFusion.Graphs.LayeredLayout;
var LayoutDirection = MindFusion.Graphs.LayoutDirection;

// a shortcut to the Events class
var Events = MindFusion.Diagramming.Events;

The code for the diagram does not need to be in a single method call, so we’ll use the document.ready event handler:

$(document).ready(function () {

// create a Diagram component that wraps the "diagram" canvas
diagram = MindFusion.AbstractionLayer.createControl(Diagram, null, null, null, $("#diagram")[0]);
//set both base and head link shape size
diagram.setLinkHeadShapeSize(2);
diagram.setLinkBaseShapeSize(2);
diagram.setLinkBaseShape(MindFusion.Diagramming.Shape.fromId("Arrow"));
................

});

As with the line chart, we create a diagram object using the canvas id from the html page. Then we make some link customization: we set the base and head shape with setBaseShape and setHeadShape to “Arrow” to indicate that data flows in two directions between servers.

Now let’s use a Style instance to set the stroke, text color and font name. Then we set the link style this way:

//customize the link appearance
var linkStyle = new Style();
linkStyle.setStroke("#c0c0c0");
linkStyle.setTextColor("#585A5C");
linkStyle.setFontName("Verdana");
linkStyle.setFontSize(3);
diagram.setStyle(linkStyle);

When users click on the diagram it is important not to allow them to create new links and nodes. That’s why we use setBehavior to change the default way the diagram responds to user actions:

//diagram items can only be selected
diagram.setBehavior(MindFusion.Diagramming.Behavior.SelectOnly);

We create the graph in the buildDiagram method. First, we call clearAll to remove all diagram items to make sure only nodes we’ve created are visible:

//generate diagram nodes
function buildDiagram() {
 diagram.clearAll();

};

II. Diagram Items

Let’s create the diagram nodes. We use png icons we’ve saved in an “icons” folder in the website. The background of each node is transparent ( setTransparent ), which means only the image will be visible. Then we add the node to the items of the diagram:

var rect = new Rect(0, 0, 15, 15);

var node = new ShapeNode(diagram);
node.setBounds(rect);
//the web server
node.setImageLocation("icons/web_server.png");
node.setTransparent(true);
diagram.addItem(node);

We create similar nodes for the data server, the clients and the network servers. The links are created with the DiagramLink class. The constructor takes the origin and target node of the link as parameters. We set an setId to the links, which is important and we add a label :

//add a link between the client and the server
var link = new DiagramLink(
       diagram, node, diagram.nodes[0]);
//same as the title of a given chart series
link.setId("Client" + i);
link.addLabel("Client" + i);
diagram.addItem(link);

Let’s not forget to emphasize the two links that correspond to the two series that are initially emphasized on the chart:

//bolden the two major links
diagram.links[5].setStrokeThickness(2.0);
diagram.links[8].setStrokeThickness(2.0);

III. Layout

We’ve created the diagram items but we need to arrange them. We use the LayeredLayout algorithm:

//the layeredLayout arranges the diagram properly - into layers
function applyLayeredLayout() {
    var layout = new LayeredLayout();
    layout.direction = LayoutDirection.TopToBottom;
    layout.siftingRounds = 0;
    layout.nodeDistance = 20;
    layout.layerDistance = 20;
    diagram.arrange(layout);
    diagram.resizeToFitItems();
}

As you see it is very easy to apply a layout with the diagramming control. You just create an instance of the layout, set the properties of your choice and call arrange (). In our case we need the layout direction to be LayoutDirection.TopToBottom We also adjust the nodeDistance and layerDistance and set the number of siftingRounds (attempts to unwind split links) to 0.

IV. Events

The diagram is meant to be interactive. We use the linkSelected and clicked events to handle selection of links and click on an area of the diagram, unoccupied by any items.

// add listeners
diagram.addEventListener(Events.linkSelected, onLinkSelected);
diagram.addEventListener(Events.clicked, onClicked);

When a link is selected, we need to emphasize the line graphic that corresponds to this link. We also emphasize the link itself. In addition, we must adjust the stroke and thickness of the other line graphs and diagram links. We do this in the onLinkSelected method:

//handle the linkSelected event
function onLinkSelected(sender, args) {

    //get the style of the series
    var seriesStyle = lineChart.plot.seriesStyle;
    seriesStyle.strokeThicknesses.clear();

    //thicken just the selected series, the others should be transparent
    for (var j = 0; j < lineChart.series.count() ; j++) {
        seriesStyle.strokeThicknesses.add(0.15);
        diagram.links[j].setStrokeThickness(1.0);
    }
.....
}

First we get the series style and then we use setStrokeThickness to reset the thickness of diagram links and series to their default values. After we’ve done that we need to get the selected links and emphasize them:

//bolden all selected links in the diagram as well
for (var m = 0; m < diagram.selection.links.length; m++) {
     var clickedLinkId = diagram.selection.links[m].getId();
     diagram.selection.links[m].setStrokeThickness(3.0);

When we’ve done that we need to find the series that correspond to these links and emphasize them as well:

//find the series that correspond to the selected links
for (var i = 0; i < lineChart.series.count() ; i++) {
      var _series = lineChart.series.item(i);


      //adjust the stroke thicknesses
      if (_series.title == clickedLinkId) {

          seriesStyle.strokeThicknesses.removeAt(i);
          seriesStyle.strokeThicknesses.insert(i, 3);
      }

   }

All this is followed by a call to the draw method that repaints the chart.

//repaint the chart
lineChart.draw();

The next event handler – the onClicked method resets the thicknesses to their default values:

//reset the chart thicknesses
function onClicked(sender, args) {
    resetThicknesses();

}

This is done in the resetThicknesses method, which uses the seriesStyle field of the line chart:

/* bolden the two major series, the others should be very thin.
bolden the two major diaglinks as well. */
function resetThicknesses() {
   var seriesStyle = lineChart.plot.seriesStyle;
   seriesStyle.strokeThicknesses.clear();

   for (var j = 0; j < 5; j++) {
      seriesStyle.strokeThicknesses.add(0.15);
      diagram.links[j].setStrokeThickness(1.0);
   }
.......
}

V. Tyre Separators

The diagram is divided into three parts by three separator lines. These lines are unconnected DiagramLink instances that have no head and base shape and have a custom position for the label. We use absolute positioning to locate the arrows. To do this we need to know the current size of the diagram:

//add the separators for the tyres
//first get the size of the diagram
var width = diagram.getBounds().width;
var height = diagram.getBounds().height;

Then the separator link is created with both origin and destination node being null:

//separator for the Clients tyre
//the link starts from the left edge and eds to the right edge of the digram
var link = new DiagramLink(
		diagram, new MindFusion.Drawing.Point(2, (height / 3.5)),
        new MindFusion.Drawing.Point(width, (height / 3.5)));
link.setShadowOffsetX(0);
link.setShadowOffsetY(0);
link.setStrokeDashStyle(DashStyle.Dash);
link.setStroke("#DCDCDC");
//remove the shapes at both ends
link.setHeadShape(null);
link.setBaseShape(null);
//do not allow this link to be selected
link.setLocked(true);
//move the link label to the right
var linkLabel = link.addLabel("Clients");
linkLabel.setControlPointPosition(1, -5, 0);
diagram.addItem(link);

Note that we’ve used the setLocked property of the link and have set it to true. This means the link cannot participate in user interaction – it can’t be selected, moved, resized. That’s what we want.

And with this our sample server load application is ready. Once again, here is how it looks:

Server Load Application in JavaScript

Server Load Application in JavaScript

Run The Application

Use this link to download the full sample with all necessary libraries and scripts.

Download Source Code

You can also fork it from GitHub.

Visit the web pages of the diagramming and charting (with gauges) JavaScript libraries to learn more about these tools. Visit the MindFusion forums if you need technical support or want to ask further questions about MindFusion developer tools.

Ticket Booking System (Continued)

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In part I of the Ticket Booking System blog post we discussed the controls used in the software and how we generate and arrange the hall seats. Now let’s get deeper into the details on how we retrieve the data and how we customize the controls.

We use the Entity Framework and the Entity Data Model wizard to connect to our MS SQL database and retrieve the ticket data. Here is the model of the database:

Event Booking Software: MS SQL Database Model

Event Booking Software: MS SQL Database Model

I. The Database

We have a table for the event type (ballet, concert, opera etc.), a table for the events (Swan Lake ballet, Mozart concert, La Traviata oepra etc.), a table for the performances (an event with a date) and a table for the tickets that were sold. The performance table has a column for the base price of the tickets. The hall is divided into 3 sections according to the price of the tickets – the Performance table stores the price for the cheapest category. The other two categories are calculated according to the base price.

II. Events

We keep a class variable for the EventsTicketsEntities, which we initialize in the Form1 constructor:

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
   EventsTicketsEntities records;
   double basePrice;

   public Form1()
   {
      InitializeComponent();
      records = new EventsTicketsEntities();
      .................
}

The events are instances of the Appointment class of the Calendar. Here is the method that we use to create the Appointment-s based on the data from the database:

private void loadEvents()
{         

  List performances = records.Performances.ToList();     

  foreach (Performance p in performances)
   {
      Appointment app = new Appointment();
      app.StartTime = (DateTime)p.Date;
      app.EndTime = app.StartTime.AddHours(2.0);           
      app.HeaderText = "";
      app.DescriptionText = p.Event.Title;
      app.Tag = p.Event.EventType_Id;
      app.Style.Brush = getBrush((int)app.Tag);
      calendar.Schedule.Items.Add(app);

     }
}

We read all records in the Performances table and create an Appointment for each one. The start date of the event is the field from the database. We add to it 2 hours as duration, otherwise the event wouldn’t show up. The brush of the Appointment depends on the type of the event. The appointment does not show any text, but the event title serves as a description. As a rule the calendar control renders an Appointment‘s description as a tooltip when the user hovers the item.

The schedule item description is rendered as a tooltip

The schedule item description is rendered as a tooltip

III. Hall Seats

In order to identify the location of a seat we assign an instance of the Seat structure as an Id to the ShapeNode that represents the seat.

public struct Seat
{
  public Seat (int row, int column)
   {
     this.Row = row;
     this.Place = column;
   }

  public int Row
   {
     get; set; 
   }

 public int Place
   {
       get; set;
   }

}

We also include a rowStart parameter in the CreateSection method. The parameter keeps track of the total count of seats being generated. This allows each seat to have a unique row number:

	

void CreateSection(int rowStart, int[] seatsPerRow,
    float topY, float seatWidth, float seatHeight,
     float xPadding, float yPadding, float arcRadius)
{
        .................		
 
        seat.Id = new Seat(rowStart + r, s);
        seat.Tag = calcSeatCoeff((Seat)seat.Id);	

}

The Seat tag of the ShapeNode is calculated based on its location in the hall. It is the coefficient, which multiplied by the base price for this performance gives us the final price for this seat.

Each time a new performance is selected on the calendar, our application must refresh the seat info. Here is the method that takes care of the seat colors:

//clears the X sign at an occupied seat
private void updateSeats( double basePrice )
{
  foreach( var seat in diagram.Nodes)
  {
     (seat as ShapeNode).Text = "";
     if (seat.Tag != null)
      {
        seat.Brush = getSeatBrush(basePrice * (double)seat.Tag);
       }
  }
}

The method calculates the price of the seat and checks the color that corresponds to this price. Whenever a seat is clicked, the application marks it as selected. This is done by drawing an “X” as text on the ShapeNode using a large Font size:

Seat seatInfo = (Seat)seat.Id;
TICKETS_SOLD _ticket = new TICKETS_SOLD() { };
_ticket.Id = records.TICKETS_SOLD.ToList().Count;
_ticket.Performance_Id = (int)calendar.Tag;
_ticket.Row_Index = seatInfo.Row;
_ticket.Seat_Index = seatInfo.Place;
records.TICKETS_SOLD.Add(_ticket);
                        
try
    {
      records.SaveChanges();

    }
catch (DbEntityValidationException ex)
    {
      Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
    }
    seat.Text = "X";

We create a new TICKETS_SOLD record, which contains a unique Id for the sold ticket, an Id for the performance, and the location of the seat (row and column). There is something more to that. When the user tries to click on a seat that is already sold we want to warn him that it is not possible to buy the seat. This is done by having a special node that stays hidden and shows up for a few seconds only to warn the user:

private void generateOccupiedNode()
  {
    float x = diagram.Bounds.Left + diagram.Bounds.Width / 2 - 50;
    float y = diagram.Bounds.Top + diagram.Bounds.Height / 2 - 30;

    RectangleF nodeBounds = new RectangleF(x, y, 100, 60);
    ShapeNode node = diagram.Factory.CreateShapeNode(nodeBounds);
    node.Brush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(100, 206, 0, 0));            
    node.Font = new Font("Arial", 26);
    node.TextBrush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.Black);
    node.Visible = false;
    node.Shape = Shapes.RoundRect;
    node.Id = "Occupied";

  }

The seat is rendered in the middle of the diagram’s visible area and has a semi – transparent background. We use a timer to track the seconds when the node is displayed:

private void diagram_NodeClicked(object sender, NodeEventArgs e)
 {
   ShapeNode seat = e.Node as ShapeNode;
   if(seat != null)
     {
       if(seat.Text == "X")
        {
           ShapeNode warning = (ShapeNode)diagram.FindNodeById("Occupied");

          if(warning != null)
          {
             warning.Text = "This Seat is Occupied!";
             Timer timer = new Timer();
             timer.Interval = 2500;
             timer.Tick += Timer_Tick;
             warning.Visible = true;
             timer.Start();
          }
        }
	...........
	
}

We then find the node and make it invisible again:

private void Timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
    ShapeNode warning = (ShapeNode)diagram.FindNodeById("Occupied");
    warning.Visible = false;
}

With this we have covered the basic methods that build the Event Ticket Reservation Software. Here is the final version:

Event Booking System in WinForms

Event Booking System in WinForms

The full source code of the application together with the sample database is available for direct download from here:

Event Ticket Booking System – Download

The sample uses the Diagramming and Scheduling controls from the MindFusion WinForms Pack. If you have questions regarding the sample or the components do not hesitate to post them on the MindFusion discussion board.

A Poll Chart: A Stacked Bar Chart in Java Swing that Represents Results of a Survey – II

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Here is a link to Part I: Overview of chart elements, the dashboard, plot and axes.

I. Bars Rendering

The bar graphics is rendered by a BarStackRenderer. It requires a collection of Series and we add four:

private ObservableList createSeries()
   {
      // Important series
	BarSeries series1 = new BarSeries(
	Arrays.asList(40.0, 30.0, 52.0, 62.0),
	Arrays.asList("20%", "15%", "26%", "31%"),
	null /* no top labels */);
        
        ............

  }

Each BarSeries has a list with the data, a list with the inner labels and no top labels. The BarStackRenderer renders in a single bar the values from the same index in each BarSeries e.g. the first bar renders the first double value in all BarSeries, the second bar renders the values on the second position in the series and so on. The BarRenderer itself has a few customizations:

barRenderer = new BarStackRenderer (createSeries());
barRenderer.setHorizontalBars(true);
barRenderer.setBarSpacingRatio(0.3);
barRenderer.setYAxis(yAxis);
barRenderer.setXAxis(xAxis);
barRenderer.setShowDataLabels(EnumSet.of(LabelKinds.InnerLabel));
barRenderer.setLabelFontSize(12.0);

Let’s not forget to add it to the Plot2D:

plot.getSeriesRenderers().add(barRenderer);

II. The Annotations

The labels at the X and Y axis are actually annotations – they are created by AnnotationRenderer instances. An AnnotationRenderer needs a collection of Series. For the Y-axis we use a SimpleSeries instance, which is created and used for the annotations and does not provide data for the bars:

private ObservableList createAxisLabels()
{
   return FXCollections.observableList(Arrays.asList(
	new SimpleSeries(null, null)
	{
        	public String getLabel(int index, LabelKinds kind)
		{
			return axisLabels[index];
		}
	
		public double getValue(int index, int dimension) { return index; }
			
		public int getSize() { return axisLabels.length; }

		public int getDimensions() { return 1; }

		public EnumSet getSupportedLabels() {
	        	return EnumSet.of(LabelKinds.YAxisLabel);
		}
				
		final String[] axisLabels = {
			"Accomodation", "University\nLocation", "Tuition\nPrice", "Quality of\nEducation" };
		}
	));
}

Here we indicate that this SimpleSeries provides labels for the YAxis with the getSupportedLabels override, which in our case returns LabelKinds.YAxisLabel. The label is returned by the getLabel method.

The annotations on the X-axis are rendered by a special class called CustomBarSeries. We implement the Series interface to return a set of predefined labels for each data value in this series:

public CustomBarSeries(List values, List innerLabels, List topLabels) {
	super(values, innerLabels, topLabels);
		
	this._values = values;
	double sum = 0;
	_stackedValues = new ArrayList(values.size());
		
	for(double val : values)
	{
	   sum += val;
	  _stackedValues.add(sum);
	}
	this._innerLabels = innerLabels;
	
}

We also take into consideration that the values rendered by the bar chart where this class is used are stacked – so we sum them and return the summed value when asked:

public double getValue(int index, int dimension) { 
		
	if( dimension == 0)
	  return _stackedValues.get(index);
	
        return _values.get(index);			
}

Then we return the predefined label at the given position and :

public String getLabel(int index, LabelKinds kind)
  {
	if(kind.equals(LabelKinds.InnerLabel))
	{
		return _innerLabels.get(index);
	}

	//else return the labels
	return axisLabels[index];
}
	
       final String[] axisLabels = {
		"Very Important", 
		"Somewhat\nImportant", "Slightly\nImportant", 
		"Not\nImportant" };

We create an instance of this CustomBarSeries and we assign it to the new AnnotationRenderer, that is responsible for the labels at the X-axis:

List sl = new ArrayList();
	sl.add(new CustomBarSeries(
	        Arrays.asList(25.0, 50.0, 50.0, 50.0),
		null,
		null));
	javafx.collections.ObservableList olss = FXCollections.observableList(sl);
	annotationRenderer1 = new AnnotationRenderer(olss);
	annotationRenderer1.setSeries(olss);

Let’s not forget to bind the AnnotationRenderer to the X-axis:

annotationRenderer1.setXAxis(xAxis);
annotationRenderer1.setShowDataLabels(EnumSet.of(LabelKinds.XAxisLabel));

Here is the final chart:

A stacked bar chart in Java Swing

Poll chart in Java Swing

That’s the end of this tutorial. Here is the link to download the full sample.

Download The Stacked Bar Chart in Java Sample

About Charting for Java: MindFusion.Charting for Java Swing is a multipurpose graphics library that lets you create and customize a large variety of chart types: bar, column, pie, doughnut, radar, polar etc., candlestick financial charts, gauges and dashboards with dynamic layout of their components. The library boasts a smart API which lets you combine and arrange multiple lots, axes, legends, images and other chart components. The chart appearance can be customized on multiple levels – from properties applied on a single element to global themes reused by all charts and series. Charts use a uniform Series interface for reading data and labels. You can implement the interface and create custom Series that matches your data source. Written in pure Java, this tool provides every type of Java Swing application with powerful charting capabilities. Read more about the component from here.

Ticket Booking System

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In this blog post we will create a sample ticketing software that will allow users to select events and book tickets for them. We will use the MindFusion Diagramming and Scheduling components for WinForms. The tutorial is divided int two parts:

I. The Controls

We create a WinForms application in VisualStudio and add a new folder ‘Assemblies’ with the dll-s that we want to use. There we copy:

  • MindFusion.Common.dll
  • MindFusion.Common.WinForms.dll
  • MindFusion.Diagramming.dll
  • MindFusion.Diagramming.WinForms.dll
  • MindFusion.Licensing.dll
  • MindFusion.Scheduling.dll

Then we click on the Toolbox pane -> Choose Items -> Browse and we add the MindFusion.Diagramming.WinForms and MindFusion.Scheduling dll-s. They add a list of components, but we select the DiagramView and the Calendar controls and drop them onto the form. The DiagramView creates automatically the diagram instance that it renders.

II. The Hall Layout

The hall layout is rendered by the flowchart control. We use a special method that we’ve named CreateSection to create and arrange a section in the hall. The declaration of the method is:

void CreateSection(int[] seatsPerRow,
            float topY, float seatWidth, float seatHeight,
            float xPadding, float yPadding, float arcRadius)

We provide the method with an array of integers that indicate the number of seats on each row in the section. Then is the offset to the top and the size of each seat. The xPadding and yPadding arguments indicate the space between two adjacent seats. The last argument indicates how curved the row of seats is.

What the method generally does is calculate the location of each seat and generate a node with these coordinates and given size:

 float y = topY;
     for (int r = seatsPerRow.Length - 1; r >= 0; r--)
        {
           var c = new PointF(0, y + arcRadius);
           int seats = seatsPerRow[r];
           float rowWidth = seats * seatWidth + (seats - 1) * xPadding;
           float x = -rowWidth / 2;
     
           for (int s = 0; s  0)
                  {
                     float angle = 0;
                     float radius = 0;
                     MindFusion.Geometry.Geometry2D.Convert.CartesianToPolar(
                         c, new PointF(x, y), ref angle, ref radius);
                     adjustedY = c.Y - arcRadius * Math.Sin(angle * Math.PI / 180);
                  }
                 diagram.Factory.CreateShapeNode(
                     x, (float)adjustedY, seatWidth, seatHeight);
                     x += seatWidth + xPadding;
               }
               y += seatHeight + yPadding;
           }

The nodes are created with Factory.CreateShapeNode method which uses the Factory helper class of the diagram component. The CreateShapeNode method creates and adds the newly created nodes to the Nodes collection of the diagram.

III. The Calendar

The default settings of the Scheduling control give us exactly the month view with events we want to get. However we still need to add some customizations:

First, we won’t allow users to perform in-place edit of events on the calendar:

calendar.AllowInplaceEdit = false;

Then we will change the brushes for the calendar items and will hide the clock icons that appear at the header of events:

calendar.ItemSettings.Size = 10;            
calendar.ItemSettings.ShowClocks = MindFusion.Scheduling.WinForms.ShowClocks.Never;
calendar.ItemSettings.Style.Brush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush (Color.FromArgb(102, 154, 204));
calendar.ItemSettings.Style.BorderBottomColor = calendar.ItemSettings.Style.BorderLeftColor =
                calendar.ItemSettings.Style.BorderRightColor = calendar.ItemSettings.Style.BorderTopColor = Color.FromArgb(192, 192, 192);
calendar.ItemSettings.SelectedItemStyle.Brush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush (Color.FromArgb(206, 0, 0));
calendar.Selection.SelectedElementsStyle.Brush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(224, 233, 233));

Now let’s create a few items:

Appointment event1 = new Appointment();
event1.StartTime = new DateTime(2017, 5, 2, 16, 0, 0);
event1.EndTime = new DateTime(2017, 5, 2, 18, 30, 0);
event1.HeaderText = "";
event1.DescriptionText = "Swan Lake";
event1.Tag = EventType.Ballet;
event1.Style.Brush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(102, 154, 204));

calendar.Schedule.Items.Add(event1);

Our Appointment-s have a start and end time, description, brush according to the EventType and tag that indicates the type of event that is rendered. It would be nice to have tooltips that provide details about the event:

calendar.ShowToolTips = true;

This turns on tooltips on all calendar items. We want tooltips just on our events so we use the TooltipDisplaying event to hide the tooltips on items that are not events:

calendar.TooltipDisplaying += Calendar_TooltipDisplaying;
.....

}

private void Calendar_TooltipDisplaying(object sender, MindFusion.Scheduling.WinForms.TooltipEventArgs e)
{
  if(e.Element.GetType() != typeof(Appointment))
     {
       e.Tooltip = "";
     }
}

Here is a screenshot of the event ticketing system so far:

Event Ticket System with MindFusion WinForms Controls

Event Ticket System with MindFusion WinForms Controls

A download of the project with all necessary dll-s is available from this link:

Ticket Booking System in WinForms

The Scheduling for WinForms and Diagramming for WinForms components are part of MindFusion WinForms control suite – the perfect set of tools to help you build any type of WinForms software fast and easy. Find out more about MindFusion WinForms pack here.

A Poll Chart: A Stacked Bar Chart in Java Swing that Represents Results of a Survey

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Part I: Overview of chart elements, the dashboard, plot and axes.

Part II : Bar series and their drawing, rendering of custom labels with AnnotationRenderer-s.

In this blog post we will build a horizontal stacked bar chart in Java. To build the chart we use the Java chart library. We want to add a few custom elements to the chart and that’s why we will use the Dashboard control that gives us complete control over the chart elements that we use and how to arrange them.

I. Chart Elements

We use the following chart elements:

The image below gives you a visual presentation on how the components used are arranged:

The chart elements that build this stacked bar chart

The chart elements that build this stacked bar chart

The GridPanel has two rows and two columns. On the first row is the XAxisRenderer , that renders the X-axis, on the second row is the YAxisRenderer and the Plot with the BarStackRenderer .

II. The Dashboard

First, we create the Dashboard and add some styling to it with a Theme . The Theme class allows us to specify all appearance settings of a chart. We set only those that we want to use: the grid, the font:

Dashboard board = new Dashboard();
						
// set up appearance
Theme theme = board.getTheme();
theme.setPlotBorderStrokeThickness(0);
theme.setTitleBrush(new SolidBrush(Color.black));
theme.setGridColor1(Color.white);
theme.setGridColor2(new Color(240, 240, 240));
theme.setGridLineColor(new Color(255, 255, 255));

We add the TextComponent for the title and the GridPanel to the LayoutPanel of the Dashboard . The LayoutPanel is a vertical StackPanel and it arranges the elements exactly as we want them to appear:

board.getLayoutPanel().getChildren().add(title);
board.getLayoutPanel().getChildren().add(panel);

getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
getContentPane().add(board, BorderLayout.CENTER);

We make sure the ContentPane of the JFrame that our Swing application uses applies the BorderLayout on the Dashboard and places it in the center which means it will stretch automatically when the user changes the size of the JFrame.

III. The Plot

The plot for the Chart is a Plot2D control. It will hold the BarRenderer and the two AnnotationRenderer -s. First, we set some general options: that the plot allows span, that it stretches in both directions and it will render a vertical grid.

//create the Plot2D
Plot2D out = new Plot2D();	
out.setAllowPan(true);
out.setHighlightStrokeDashStyle(DashStyle.Dash);
out.setHorizontalAlignment(LayoutAlignment.Stretch);
out.setVerticalAlignment(LayoutAlignment.Stretch);
out.setGridType(GridType.Vertical);

Then we go on with the styling options. The colors for the bars are set by a SeriesStyle class. We use an instance of the PerSeriesStyle which assings one brush and one fill for all elements in a single Series. We also set the HighlightStroke, which is the Brush that is used to highlight the bar that is selected:

List fills = fill();
List strokes = stroke();
out.setBackground(new SolidBrush(Color.white));
out.setVerticalScroll(true);
out.setSeriesStyle(new PerSeriesStyle(fills, strokes, Arrays.asList(5.0), null));		
out.setHighlightStroke(new SolidBrush(new Color(0, 0, 99)));

Finally we indicate the location of the plot in the GridPanel (more about the grid later):

//position in the grid
out.setGridColumn(1);
out.setGridRow(1);

IV. Axes

The axes are two – X and Y. The Y axis is present, but not visible. The X-axis is visible, aligned to the top and does not draw labels. The Axis are instances of the Axis class. They both use AxisRenderer instances to be drawn:

xAxis = new Axis();
xAxis.setMinValue(0.0);
xAxis.setMaxValue(300.0);
xAxis.setInterval(50);		
xAxis.setTitle("");

The intervals of the axis are important because they determine the location of the grid stripes. The Axis sets some apperance properties like brush and font for the labels.

//the xAxisRenderer is bound to the xAxis
xAxisRenderer = new XAxisRenderer(xAxis);			
xAxisRenderer.setAxisStroke(new SolidBrush(Colors.Black));
xAxisRenderer.setAxisStrokeThickness(1.0);
xAxisRenderer.setLabelFontSize(12.0);
xAxisRenderer.setLabelBrush(new SolidBrush(Colors.Black));

Then comes the importnat part: we must tell this Axis that its labels come from an AnnotationRenderer , that it must not draw its intervals and that the labels are drawn above, rather than below the axis line:

//axis labels will be rendered by an AnnotationRenderer
xAxisRenderer.setLabelsSource(annotationRenderer1);
xAxisRenderer.setShowCoordinates(false);		
xAxisRenderer.setPlotBottomSide(false);

Finally, we specify its location and stretch settings:

//stretch this horizontal axis
xAxisRenderer.setHorizontalAlignment(LayoutAlignment.Stretch);
   	
//position in the Grid
xAxisRenderer.setGridColumn(1);
xAxisRenderer.setGridRow(0);

The Y-axis is similar to the X-axis, so we won’t describe its settings here. Here is the final chart:

A stacked bar chart in Java Swing

Poll chart in Java Swing

This is the end of the Part I of this tutorial. In part II we’ll cover the BarRenderer with the BarSeries and the AnnotationRenderer-s. We will also briefly discuss the GridPanel.

You can download the complete source code of the sample from here:

Download The Stacked Bar Chart in Java Sample

About Charting for Java: MindFusion.Charting for Java Swing is a multipurpose graphics library that lets you create and customize a large variety of chart types: bar, column, pie, doughnut, radar, polar etc., candlestick financial charts, gauges and dashboards with dynamic layout of their components. The library boasts a smart API which lets you combine and arrange multiple lots, axes, legends, images and other chart components. The chart appearance can be customized on multiple levels – from properties applied on a single element to global themes reused by all charts and series. Charts use a uniform Series interface for reading data and labels. You can implement the interface and create custom Series that matches your data source. Written in pure Java, this tool provides every type of Java Swing application with powerful charting capabilities. Read more about the component from here.