InetSoft Product Information: Style Chart API - Object Hierarchy

The figure below shows the object structure of the Style Intelligence charting API. Among the significant objects, GraphElement contains the elements that graphically represent data (lines, bars, etc.). VisualFrame contains information about mapping data dimensions to physical properties (size, color, etc.), and Scale contains the scaling information for such mappings. GraphForm contains information for manually-drawn chart objects.

object heirarchy

Getting and Setting Chart Properties

The Chart API provides “getter” and “setter” methods that allow you to read and write most chart properties from script. This following section provides definitions and examples for the “setter” methods.

In general, you can call the “getter” method corresponding to a particular “setter” method by simply changing the method name prefix. For example, the “getter” method corresponding to LabelForm.setAlignmentY() is LabelForm.getAlignmentY().

The following script illustrates how you can “get” the alignment of one chart component, and use it to “set” the alignment of another:

importPackage(inetsoft.graph)
importPackage(inetsoft.graph.element)
importPackage(inetsoft.graph.scale)
importPackage(inetsoft.graph.aesthetic)
importPackage(inetsoft.graph.data)
importPackage(inetsoft.graph.coord)
importPackage(inetsoft.graph.guide.form)
 
var arr = [["State","Quantity"], ["NJ",200], ["NY",300]];
dataset = new DefaultDataSet(arr);
graph = new EGraph();
var elem = new IntervalElement("State", "Quantity");
var form1 = new LabelForm();
var form2 = new LabelForm();
form1.setLabel("label1");
form1.setPoint(new java.awt.Point(100, 100));
form1.setAlignmentY(GraphConstants.TOP_ALIGNMENT);
form2.setLabel("label2");
form2.setPoint(new java.awt.Point(200, 100));
form2.setAlignmentY(form1.getAlignmentY());
graph.addForm(form1);
graph.addForm(form2);
graph.addElement(elem);

InetSoft Viewpoint

For business analysts or IT staff who support enterprise reporting and business intelligence functions, the new visualization capabilities come via an easy-to-use drag and drop tool that makes it possible to create such an interactive dashboard in minutes. Installing and deploying the Style Intelligence business intelligence platform is also designed to be easy. The average IT person with knowledge of enterprises databases can install the small-footprint, Java-based server application in any environment and configure it to access almost any open standards based data source directly; no data warehouse or ETL process is necessarily required. Assembling data elements from disparate data sources, including imported ones, in order to make data mashups is supported with a level of self-service unique to Style intelligence. In addition to a high-performance, highly flexible, yet secure data access engine, the application includes very powerful publishing tools for creating pixel-perfect production reports with robust scheduling, bursting, and archiving capabilities.

While these visualization capabilities are not novel in business intelligence software, InetSoft's approach to delivering them is," states Mark Flaherty, Vice President of Marketing at InetSoft. "Others have pointed to visualization as the necessary catalyst to expand business intelligence to the masses, but we have realized that it's a two-step process. First, you need to empower the business or data analyst with easy-to-use tools and let them think through what kind of interactive dashboard the business users will gain insight from. And these analytic dashboards need to be designed well enough that they can almost be self-explanatory in how to use. Then, once the analyst shares these interactive dashboards with the business users, they can begin using them with little or no training because of their easy point and click interfaces which rely on easy to understand drop-down and selection lists.

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