Controls in Charts

Sometimes you need to insert drawing objects like labels, text boxes, pictures and so on into a chart. Aspose.Cells can add the controls to a chart at runtime.

Adding Label Control to the Chart

Labels provide a means for giving information to users about a spreadsheet’s content. Aspose.Cells allows you to add and manipulate labels even into charts.

The ShapeCollection class provides a method named addLabelInChart, used to add a label control to a chart. Below is a list of the parameters used for the method:

• top – the vertical offset of the label from the upper left corner in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• left – the vertical offset of the label from the upper left corner in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• height – the height of the label, in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• width – the width of the label, in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.

The method returns an object of the Label class, where the Label class represents a label in the chart. It has some important members as detailed below:

• Text property specifies a label’s caption string.
• Fill property specifies the fill color attributes.

The following example shows how to add a label to the chart. The example uses a designer file which has a chart in it. We use this file to insert a label into the chart.

Below is a screenshot of the designer file.

The designer chart

Below is the original code for adding a label to the chart. The following output is generated when executing the code.

A label is added in the chart

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-Java
// The path to the documents directory.
String dataDir = Utils.getSharedDataDir(AddingLabelControl.class) + "charts/";

String filePath = dataDir + "chart.xls";

Workbook workbook = new Workbook(filePath);

Worksheet worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

// Load the chart from source worksheet
Chart chart = worksheet.getCharts().get(0);

Label label = chart.getShapes().addLabelInChart(100, 100, 350, 900);
label.setText("Write Label here");
label.setPlacement(PlacementType.FREE_FLOATING);
label.getFill().getSolidFill().setColor(Color.getChocolate());

// Output the file
workbook.save(dataDir + "ALControl_out.xls");

// Print message
System.out.println("Label added to chart successfully.");

Adding TextBox Control to the Chart

One way to highlight important information in a report is to use a text box. For example, enter text to highlight the company name or to indicate the geographic region with the highest sales. The ShapeCollection class provides a method named addTextBoxInChart, which is used to add a text box control to a chart. Following is the parameters list used for the method:

• top – the vertical offset of the text box from the upper left corner in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• left – the vertical offset of the text box from the upper left corner in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• height – the height of text box, in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• width – the width of the text box, in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.

The method returns an object of the TextBox class where the TextBox class represents a text box in the chart.

The following example shows how to add a text box to a chart. The example uses the previous designer file which has a chart in it. We use this file to insert a text box into the chart to show the chart title.

Below is the original code for adding a text box to the chart. The following output is generated when executing the code.

A text box is added in the chart

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-Java
// The path to the documents directory.
String dataDir = Utils.getSharedDataDir(AddingTextBoxControl.class) + "charts/";
String filePath = dataDir + "chart.xls";

// Create a new Workbook.
// Open the existing file.
Workbook workbook = new Workbook(filePath);
Worksheet worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

// Load the chart from source worksheet
Chart chart = worksheet.getCharts().get(0);

// Add a new textbox to the chart.
TextBox txt = chart.getShapes().addTextBoxInChart(100, 100, 850, 2500);
txt.setText("Aspose");
txt.getFont().setItalic(true);
txt.getFont().setSize(20);
txt.getFont().setBold(true);

// Get the filformat of the textbox.
FillFormat fillformat = txt.getFill();
fillformat.setFillType(FillType.SOLID);
fillformat.getSolidFill().setColor(Color.getSilver());

// Get the lineformat type of the textbox.
LineFormat lineformat = txt.getLine();
lineformat.setWeight(2);
lineformat.setDashStyle(MsoLineDashStyle.SOLID);

// Output the file
workbook.save(dataDir + "ATBoxControl_out.xls");

// Print message
System.out.println("TextBox added to chart successfully.");

Adding Picture to the Chart

Aspose.Cells allows you to insert images into a chart. For example, add a picture to emphasize or give more meaning to a chart or its contents, or insert a brand image file.

The ShapeCollection class provides a method named addPictureInChart, which is used to add a picture object to the chart. Following is the parameters list used for the method:

• top – the vertical offset of the picture from the upper left corner in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• left – the vertical offset of the picture from the upper left corner in units of 1/4000 of the chart area.
• stream – a stream object which contains the image data.
• widthScale – the scale of image width, a percentage value.
• heightScale – the scale of image height, a percentage value.

The method returns an object of the Picture class where the Picture class represents a picture object in the chart.

The following example shows how to add a picture to the chart. The example utilizes the previous designer file which has a chart in it. We use this file to insert an image into the chart.

Below is the original code for adding a picture to the chart. The following output is generated when executing the code

A picture is inserted into the chart

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-Java
// The path to the documents directory.
String dataDir = Utils.getSharedDataDir(AddingPictureToChart.class) + "charts/";

String filePath = dataDir + "chart.xls";

FileInputStream stream = new FileInputStream(dataDir + "logo.jpg");

Workbook workbook = new Workbook(filePath);

Worksheet worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

// Load the chart from source worksheet
Chart chart = worksheet.getCharts().get(0);

Picture pic = chart.getShapes().addPictureInChart(50, 50, stream, 40, 40);
LineFormat lineformat = pic.getLine();

lineformat.setFillType(FillType.SOLID);
lineformat.getSolidFill().setColor(Color.getBlue());
lineformat.setDashStyle(MsoLineDashStyle.DASH_DOT_DOT);
// Output the file
workbook.save(dataDir + "APToChart_out.xls");

// Print message
System.out.println("Picture added to chart successfully.");

Adding Checkbox in the Chart

Aspose.Cells allows you to insert checkboxes into a chart sheet by using MsoDrawingType enumeration. The following example demonstrates adding a checkbox to a chart sheet.

The following image shows the chart sheet with the checkbox in the output file.

The output file generated by the following code snippet is attached for your reference.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-Java
// directories
String outputDir = Utils.Get_OutputDirectory();

// Instantiating a Workbook object
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

// Adding a chart to the worksheet
int index = workbook.getWorksheets().add(SheetType.CHART);

Worksheet sheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(index);
sheet.getCharts().addFloatingChart(ChartType.COLUMN, 0, 0, 1024, 960);
sheet.getCharts().get(0).getNSeries().add("{1,2,3}", false);

// Add checkbox to the chart.
sheet.getCharts().get(0).getShapes().addShapeInChart(MsoDrawingType.CHECK_BOX, PlacementType.MOVE, 400, 400, 1000, 600);
sheet.getCharts().get(0).getShapes().get(0).setText("CheckBox 1");

// Convert chart to image with additional settings
workbook.save(outputDir + "InsertCheckboxInChartSheet_out.xlsx");