Working with Charts

LINQ Reporting Engine enables you to use charts to represent your sequential data. To declare a chart that is going to be populated with data dynamically within your template, do the following steps:

1. Add a chart to your template at the place where you want it to appear in a result document.

2. Configure the appearance of the chart.

3. Add required chart series and configure their appearance as well.

4. Add a title to the chart, if missing.

5. Add an opening foreach tag to the chart title.

6. Depending on the type of the chart, add x tags to the chart title or chart series’ names as follows.
   

   <<x [x_value_expression>>
   

   • For a scatter or bubble chart, you can go one of the following ways:
     • To use the same x-value expression for all chart series, add a single x tag to the chart title after the corresponding foreach tag.
     • To use different x-value expressions for every chart series, add multiple x tags to chart series’ names – one for each chart series.
       
   • For a chart of another type, add a single x tag to the chart title after the corresponding foreach tag.

   An x-value expression has the following restrictions depending on a chart type:

   • For a scatter, bubble, or histogram chart, an x-value expression must return a numeric value.
   • For a treemap or sunburst chart, an x-value expression corresponds to leaves and must return a string value.
   • For a chart of another type, an x-value expression must return a numeric, date, or string value.

7. For a treemap or sunburst chart, add x2 and x3 tags (corresponding to stems and branches respectively) to the chart title as follows.

   <<x2 [x2_value_expression]>><<x3 [x3_value_expression]>>
   

   Expressions defined for x2 and x3 tags must return string values.

8. For a chart of any type other than histogram, add y tags to chart series’ names as follows.
   

   <<y [y_value_expression]>>
   

   An y-value expression must return a numeric value.

9. For a bubble chart, add size tags to chart series’ names as follows.
   

   <<size [bubble_size_expression]>>
   

   A bubble-size expression must return a numeric value.
   

Note – A closing foreach tag is not used for a chart.

While composing expressions for x, x2, x3, y, and size tags, you can normally reference an iteration variable declared at the corresponding foreach tag in a chart title in the same way as if you intended to output results of expressions within a data band.

Note – You can normally use charts with dynamic data within data bands.

During runtime, a chart with a foreach tag in its title is processed by the engine as follows:

1. A sequence expression declared at the foreach tag is evaluated and iterated.
2. For every sequence item, expressions declared at x, x2, x3, y, and size tags are evaluated.
3. Results of these expressions are used to populate corresponding chart series.
4. All foreach, x, x2, x3, y, and size tags are removed from the chart title and chart series’ names.

Consider the following example. Assume that you have the Manager and Contract classes defined in your application as follows.

public class Manager
{
   public String getName getName() { ... }
   public Iterable<Contract> getContracts() { ... }
   ...
}

public class Contract
{
   public float getPrice() { ... }
   ...
}

Given that managers is an enumeration of Manager instances, you can use the following template to represent total contract prices achieved by managers in a column chart.

In this case, the engine produces a report as follows.

For more examples of templates for typical scenarios involving charts, see “ REF typicalTemplates Appendix C. Typical Templates”.

Including Chart Series Dynamically

For a chart with dynamic data, you can select which series to include into it dynamically based upon conditions. In particular, this feature is useful when you need to restrict access to sensitive data in chart series for some users of your application. To use the feature, do the following steps:

1. Declare a chart with dynamic data in the usual way.
2. For series to be removed from the chart based upon conditions dynamically, define the conditions in names of these series using removeif tags having the following syntax.

   <<removeif [conditional_expression]>>
   

Note – A conditional expression must return a Boolean value.

During runtime, series with removeif tags, for which conditional expressions return true, are removed from corresponding charts. The rest of the series are kept and populated with data as usual. In either case, removeif tags themselves are removed.

Consider the following example. Given the previous definition of managers and that accessLevel is an integer value representing an access level of a user, you can use the following chart template to make numbers of contracts be available for all users whereas financial contract data be available only for users having an access level of zero.

If accessLevel is equal to zero, the engine produces a report as follows.

If accessLevel is not equal to zero, the engine produces a report as follows.

Setting Chart Series Colors Dynamically

For a chart with dynamic data, you can set colors of chart series dynamically based upon expressions. To use the feature, do the following steps:

1. Declare a chart with dynamic data in the usual way.
2. For chart series to be colored dynamically, define corresponding color expressions in names of these series using seriesColor tags having the following syntax.

   <<seriesColor [color_expression]>>
   

A color expression must return a value of one of the following types:

• A string containing the name of a known color, that is, the case-insensitive name of a member of the KnownColor enumeration such as “red”.
• A string containing an HTML color code such as “#F08080” (light coral).
• An integer value defining RGB (red, green, blue) components of the color such as 0xFFFF00 (yellow).
• A value of the Color type.

During runtime, expressions declared within seriesColor tags are evaluated and corresponding chart series are colored accordingly. The seriesColor tags are removed then.

Consider the following example. Given the previous definition of managers and that color1 and color2 are color values of supported types, you can use the following chart template to set its series colors dynamically.

In this case, the engine produces a report as follows.

Setting Chart Series Point Colors Dynamically

For a chart with dynamic data, you can set colors of individual chart series points dynamically based upon expressions. To use the feature, do the following steps:

1. Declare a chart with dynamic data in the usual way.
2. For chart series with points to be colored dynamically, define corresponding color expressions in names of these series using pointColor tags having the following syntax.

   <<pointColor [color_expression]>>
   

A color expression must return a value of one of the following types:

• A string containing the name of a known color, that is, the case-insensitive name of a member of the KnownColor enumeration such as “red”.
• A string containing an HTML color code such as “#F08080” (light coral).
• An integer value defining RGB (red, green, blue) components of the color such as 0xFFFF00 (yellow).
• A value of the Color type.

During runtime, expressions declared within pointColor tags are evaluated and corresponding chart series points are colored accordingly. The pointColor tags are removed then.

Note – Dynamic coloring of individual chart series points is not supported for histogram and box & whisker charts, and only partially supported for treemap and sunburst charts – It works only for leaves.

Consider the following example. Assume that you have the ColoredItem class defined in your application as follows.

public class ColoredItem
{
	public String getName() { ... }
	public float getPrice() { ... }
	public Color getColor() { ... }
	...
}

Given that items is an enumeration of ColoredItem instances, you can use the following chart template to set its series point colors dynamically.

The series name for the template chart is defined as follows.

In this case, the engine produces a report as follows.

Setting Chart Title, Series Names, and Axis Titles Dynamically

You can normally use common expression tags in chart titles, series names, and axis titles, thus forming their contents dynamically. This feature can be used for any chart defined in a template even for the one that is not populated with data dynamically like in the following example.

Given that chartTitle, seriesName, and axisName are strings taking values “Chart Title”, “Series Name”, and “Axis Title” respectively, you can use the following chart template to set the chart’s title, series name, and axis title dynamically.

In this case, the engine produces a report as follows.

Note – You can normally apply this approach to a chart dynamically populated with data.