MS Chart Blog Ideas

Question

I was posting about MS Chart on my blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/alexgor/) and now instead of just choosing the next topic on my own, I want you to give me several ideas of what you would like me to cover. Please reply with several topics you think will be great to cover in my next blog posts!

Thanks.
Alex.

---

http://blogs.msdn.com/alexgor

Answer 1

I saw that you had a post titled "MS Chart Layout Helper" and it provided lots of good advice. However I'm still struggling with getting dynamically sized charts to look like I want at all times. In the screen shot below I resorted to using to using five seperate charts in a TableLayoutPanel for each component (one for the title, one for each chart [upload/download], and one for each legend [upload/download]). I was unable to achieve the same dynamic consistent results with a single Chart, multiple ChartAreas, and multiple Legends. Perhaps you could post on that. The screenshot:

Answer 2

Something like "Chart Elements Layout"... added to the TODO list! :) For your scenario, I think you choose the correct approach.

Alex.

---

http://blogs.msdn.com/alexgor

Answer 3

I'd like to see some in depth discussion of the MS Chart caching capabilities.  I have read some of the documentation but am still struggling on how to properly implement and test chart caching.

Answer 4

Hi Alex,

I personally would like to see a 10,000 ft view of solutions that are possible with MS-Charts.  I realize that there are many and probably too many to put down, but I am sure there are a lot that many developers will run into. For example, the "How To" in getting a solution to work (End-2-End):

Pick a Solution based on the 10's of thousand questions you have answered (and which ever you choose):

1.)  What would be the best Chart to display it (what slows it down/speeds it up, etc...)?
2.)  Dynamically (or not)?
3.)  Based on ASPX page or Code behind.
4.)  Web.Config setup vs Programmatic setup (what are the differences...which takes priority when you set both up)?
5.)  IIS Setup.
6.)  Server Permissions (directories where images go, etc...).
7.)  Downloading the Chart (if required).
8.)  With Security now a days, developers are finding it harder to do certain things (permissions, etc...).
etc...

I know blogs are more short/concise and this seems to be more of an article, but I am not talking "provide code" just a walk-through into "what we should be asking ourselves" and possible road-blocks and how to get around them. At any rate I am sure developers would love to see a quick "End-2-End" solution based on your expert knowledge of this control.

My $.02

Dan

---

MadMan

Answer 5

Perhaps a quick tutorial on using a databound list control (gridview, listview, etc) with the graph to display specific series on the graph dynamically. I've got one solution working, but I don't know that I'm doing it the best. I know that others would probably like to see something like this, if only for comparison, and there are a few tricks (like Chart1.ApplyPaletteColors(); ) that it took me some time to find to make those controls more user-friendly.

I think that showing any tricks or tips that you know of to provide a user-friendly experience for this example would be good.

If any other readers would like to do or collaborate on a tutorial for this, I would like to wrap this in an UpdatePanel for my own benefit, with a overfloating div update gif, but I'm worried that my style is wrong, so I hate to tackle this on my own.

Regardless, Alex's blog or another's, I do have code for this that I'll share, but please no "plz send me teh codez".

Answer 6

dude, you need to some dynamic stuff, like how to build charts dynamically straight from a response, and how to dynamically change colors and maybe spice up the tooltip abit more.
But so far, i think the chart controls are easy to implement and to use, but when  you try to customize the chart to how to you want it to function, u really suffer.

I say do a tutorial on dynamic content, in vb and c# just using code behind, no dragging and dropping the chart from the toolbox.

But the control is amazing!

Answer 7

"dynamic content, in vb and c# just using code behind, no dragging and dropping the chart from the toolbox"

Got code like this already, and  *think* there should be some in samples eg have built sparklines dynamically in a table created in code behind.

Maybe there should be a place for shared code uploads(?)

Answer 8

Maybe there should be a place for shared code uploads(?)

Agreed. I figured the site at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mschart would give us a good idea where to start doing so, and I imagine that uploading to code.msdn.microsoft.com would be a good place to upload, but I think our current culture is geared more towards a wiki (being a structured repo slotted to a particular resource) as opposed to the "post and let others search for what you did" which is how I interpret code.msdn.microsoft.com ...

Any other thoughts similar or against?

---

Please don't forget (and feel free to remind me) to post if you got the answer you wanted, and select who really answered your post when you do so future visitors will know too! Remember, this is .NET 4.0 in a .NET 3.5 world, you're a pioneer right now.

Answer 9

Here's an idea... how about you approve comments people make on your posts? :)

I thought I made a totally reasonable observation about the default chart colour palettes being inappropriate for people who are colour blind or if you need to draw attention to a particular data point.

Answer 10

Can you dedicate a post to explain more about drilling techniques?

Thanks,
Maria.

---

Maria

Answer 11

Hello Mr. Alex,

I started my career as Jr.Sftware Engineer 6 months ago for my project involving Chart development.
But the statement they gave me was - "Purely generic n fully customizable Charts".

It was like a challenge, but I reffered your blog, and after a month then I build dynamic charts.
Now, I am producing it purely generic way.

But some problems are in my mind...

1) I can bind multiple charts in single chart control, but they do not show the Legends bound to series in proper alignement of their respective chart areas.
2) Custom properties of Charts are not addressed clearly.
3) Pie charts require clarification about Custom Property "PieLabelStyle=Outside", it displays YValue, but what if I don't put Legend n wanna see X Value in Pie slices with Custom Property enabled?

These things are in my mind for my project...
I will later describe the others.

Hope you will better understand and answer these questions.

---

Dhruv Patel [ Email : [e-mail] ]