ChartingControl.NET 1.6
Simple to Use, Inexpensive, and Easy to Deploy
There are many third-party charting controls available for .NET development. Many
are big, fancy, expensive software systems offered by major brand name software
companies. They can be difficult to deploy, often involving complex dependencies
and GAC registration requirements that may be difficult (if not impossible) to deal
with when deploying to shared Web servers. Such charting packages often have steep
learning curves that can involve a developer tinkering for many days to get moderately
complex charts to appear as desired. Licensing is often nefarious, too, with headaches
often being caused by such things as trying to figure out if the control used by
developer 1 on project A using server X can be legally used by developer 2 on project
B using server Y. And good luck getting management to sign off on the large price
tags frequently associated with such systems.
With that in mind, I’m pleased to introduce you to ChartingControl.NET, which provides
a development experience exactly opposite of the description above. It’s simple
and inexpensive, has a small footprint, and couldn’t possibly be any easier to deploy.
Getting Started
The free demo download of ChartingControl.NET is quick and simple, with the zip
file weighing in at just over 6 megabytes. There is no setup program, however, so
setting things up requires a few basic manual steps that I’d prefer to be automated.
There are two sample projects included, a fairly thorough help file, and the dependency
free ChartControl.dll.
After creating a new Web application and adding the charting control to your toolbox,
it can be dragged onto any Web form for a reasonably rich design-time experience,
as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: With a variety of useful configuration options, ChartingControl.NET presents a smooth design-time experience.
The smart tag allows customization of the most common grid properties, and of course the standard Visual Studio property window can be used if preferred to set any of the 80 editable properties available there. Alternatively, the settings dialog box shown in Figure 2 is a convenient way to configure settings and to input static or test data.
Figure 2: The settings dialog box for ChartingControl.NET is a useful way to configure a graph.
There are 39 chart types, including many variations of bar graphs, pie charts, line
graphs, radar charts, and even geographic maps. The output for the majority of the
charts is absolutely beautiful, rivaling many charting controls that cost several
times as much. While the charts render as images by default, simply setting the
UseFlash property to true will cause most charts to render as flash animations,
with bars and lines dropping and bouncing into place. The animations are highly
customizable through a variety of property settings, although I wish there were
a way to get the animations to finish faster than is currently allowed.
Unlike some competing charting controls, individual bars, lines, and other data
points can have their own labels, tooltips, and click events for rich interactive
feedback and drilldown functionality.
Code Mode
A basic ASPX declaration for ChartingControl.NET is shown in Figure 3.
While most
properties can be configured in the source view shown in Figure 3 or in the design-time
windows shown in Figures 1 and 2, they can also be set at run time with intuitive
syntax such as that shown in Figure 4.
Figure 3: A basic ASPX declaration.
Figure 4: Properties can be set at run time with intuitive syntax.
As you can see, the syntax is reasonably simple for anyone familiar with .NET and
computerized chart creation.
All About ChartingControl.NET
ChartingControl.NET was developed in pure C# code. Its small footprint, lack of
dependencies, and ability to be deployed outside the GAC makes it great for deploying
to shared Web servers to which you may not have complete control.
While this review covers the ASP.NET 2.0 version of the control, there is also a
1.1 version, as well as Windows forms versions of the charting control. For the
paltry price of only US$250 you get a fully licensed copy of the control that can
be reused universally across any or all of your company’s applications. The full
source code to the control can also be purchased, although it costs about 10 times
as much.
The free demo of the control is fully functional, although it displays a notice
across the front of every generated chart that says “Not for production environment”
(as shown in Figure 5).
Figure 5: The fully functional demo of ChartingControl.NET displays beautifully rendered charts altered only by a trial notice displayed across the front.
Well Worth the Price
The performance of ChartingControl.NET is snappy and scalable. Its intuitive design-time
experience and beautiful chart output could easily be appealing to virtually any
.NET developer. ChartingControl.NET may be a little rough around the edges, such
as a few typos in the documentation and property names, but these minor nitpicks
can be easily overlooked by budget-minded software developers.
Outside Software, Inc. has quite an impressive initial control on their hands. Because
this is the company’s only control, you can expect focused support like few other
companies could hope to provide. This includes free lifetime support, beginning
with 60 days of priority e-mail support (send to
mailto:office@chartingcontrol.net). It also includes free access to minor
version upgrades. An online forum or FAQ would be nice additions to their Web site,
although the online user guides and product documentation are ample.
If you’re in need of a good, solid charting control that won’t burglarize your budget,
I suggest you download the free ChartingControl.NET demo now and take it for a test
drive.
Rating:
éééé
Web Site:
http://www.ChartingControl.net/
Price: US$250
Review Date: 2007