Code On Time: ASP.NET

Tuesday, March 10, 2015Print Subscribe

Specifying Titles and Axis Labels on Charts

Every chart that has been automatically or manually defined will display a title. This title will be composed using the row, column, and value fields and their properties that have been specified for the chart. For example, suppose we create a curved line chart on Orders page of the Northwind sample app that uses OrderDate for rows, EmployeeID for columns, and the sum of Freight for values.

Data Field	Tag
EmployeeID	pivot1-col1-top3
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-line-curve-date
Freight	pivot1-val1-sum

The data for the chart can be seen below.

The title states that the chart shows top three “Employee Last Name”. The value is the sum of “Freight” and the rows are grouped by “Order Date”. While the title may reveal all the necessary information, the title can be better. Let’s manually specify the title by adding the following tag. Note that the tags do not need to be on any particular data field, as long as the correct pivot ID is specified. Open the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab and double-click on Orders / Views / grid1 / EmployeeID data field node.

Add the highlighted tag:

Data Field	Tag
EmployeeID	pivot1-col1-top3 pivot1-title:"Sum of Freight By Employee"
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-line-curve-date
Freight	pivot1-val1-sum

Save the data field and regenerate the app. When the page comes up in your browser, navigate to the Orders page. Note that the new title has been applied.

The new title will also be displayed above the chart data.

By default, the axes do not have a title applied. One can use the “haxistitle” or “vaxistitle” properties to manually specify a title for the horizontal or vertical axis, respectively. Let’s specify the following axis titles:

Data Field	Tag
EmployeeID	pivot1-col1-top3 pivot1-title:"Sum of Freight By Employee"
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-line-curve-date pivot1-haxistitle:"Order Date"
Freight	pivot1-val1-sum pivot1-vaxistitle:"Freight"

The new chart will display the specified labels on each axis.

The chart data will not be changed.

Labels: Application Builder, ASP.NET, ASP.NET Code Generator, Charts, Code Generator, Designer, Features, Tips and Tricks, Touch UI, Tutorials, User Interface, Web App Generator, Web Application Generator

Sunday, March 8, 2015Print Subscribe

Map Chart Type

The “map” chart type displays a map using the Google Maps API. It accepts values in the form of addresses and renders them as pins on the map. This chart type can be useful for displaying values associated with regions or locations. However, it may be more beneficial to use Maps presentation style to allow for data interaction or Geo Chart Type instead.

The map below shows the location of customers by country.

Data Field	Tag
Country	pivot1-row1-map

The data for the map is displayed below.

Clicking on a data point will reveal the value.

The type of map can be specified with the “maptype” property. The default value is “hybrid”. The other options are “normal”, “terrain”, or “satellite”. The example below shows the “terrain” map type.

Data Field	Tag
Country	pivot1-row1-map pivot1-maptype:"terrain"

The switcher for map type is disabled by default. The switcher can be enabled by adding the “usemaptypecontrol” keyword. It will appear in the top-right corner.

Data Field	Tag
Country	pivot1-row1-map pivot1-usemaptypecontrol

By default, the user cannot use the scroll wheel to zoom. This functionality can be enabled by adding the “enablescrollwheel” keyword.

Data Field	Tag
Country	pivot1-row1-map pivot1-enablescrollwheel

Labels: Application Builder, ASP.NET, Charts, Touch UI, User Interface, Web Application Generator

Sunday, March 8, 2015Print Subscribe

Line Chart Type

The “line” chart type shows a line that plots a value as it changes over the horizontal axis. A typical use case might be plotting a value over time.

To use “line” chart type, add the keyword “line” to any “pivot-” tag, and make sure that it is separated with hyphens (-).

Data Field	Tag
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-date-line

The chart is using the “date” keyword, which directs the server to attempt several combinations of date groupings. The best fit group is selected and displayed to the user. An equivalent tag combination on OrderDate data field would be “pivot1-row1-year-line pivot1-row2-month”.

The data for the chart can be seen here.

Clicking or hovering over a data point will reveal the value.

When multiple columns or values are specified, more than one line will be drawn with a different color. It is clear that Davolio’s performance in Q1 of 1997 had declined.

Data Field	Tag
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-year-line pivot1-row2-quarter
EmployeeID	pivot1-col1

The data displays the multiple columns of data below.

By default, lines will be drawn straight. The lines can be curved by specifying the keyword “curve”.

Data Field	Tag
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-year-line pivot1-row2-quarter pivot1-curve
EmployeeID	pivot1-col1

The line chart can also be drawn vertically. Specify “vertical” for the orientation property and the chart axes will be flipped.

Data Field	Tag
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-year-line pivot1-row2-quarter pivot1-orientation:"vertical"
EmployeeID	pivot1-col1

One can enable zooming and panning on the chart by specifying the “explorer” keyword.

Data Field	Tag
OrderDate	pivot1-row1-year-line pivot1-row2-quarter pivot1-explorer
EmployeeID	pivot1-col1

Using the scroll wheel will change the scale of the vertical axis.

Clicking and dragging will pan the chart.

Right-clicking on the chart area will reset the chart. Note that the “explorer” functionality may cause interference with the user scrolling through the page – use only when necessary.

Labels: Application Factory, ASP.NET, Charts, Features, Touch UI, Tutorials, Web Application Generator