NetCharts Change History
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Change History

Version 2.0b1 (2 Mar 1997)

CHANGE TYPE DESCRIPTION
Stock Chart NEW CHART The NFStockChartApp has been added to provide a convenient way to display stock information. The Stock Chart is an extension of the Combo Chart, allowing for the display of bar, line and stock data sets in the same chart.

See NFStockChartApp for more details.

JDBC Support NEW FEATURE All NetCharts charts now support the use of JDBC expressions within parameter definitions in order to extract data directly from any commercial database, including Sybase, Oracle, Informix and any ODBC-compliant database or data store (such as Microsoft SQL Server, Excel Spreadsheets, dBase files, etc.)

See Jdbc for details concerning installation, features and examples.

Data File Support NEW FEATURE All NetCharts charts now support the use of the FILE keyword within parameter definitions in order to extract data directly from one or more delimited text files. Delimiters can be specified differently for each data file processed depending on application needs.

See File for details.

Annotations NEW FEATURE All NetCharts charts now support the display of up to 20 NoteSets, each of which can consist of one or more annotations placed at a given location on the chart, with an optional background box and multi-segment arrow, pointing to any location on the chart. NoteSets provide the user a simple way to put arbitrary text notations and arrow vectors anywhere on the graph in order to explain specific aspects of the chart, or provide ancillary information that is always displayed.

See NoteSet for complete details and examples.

Multiple Grids/New Grid Styles NEW FEATURE The Grid parameter supported by all charts (except for Diagrams and Pie Charts) has been extended to a Vector, allowing the definition of multiple grids. Furthermore, the GridAxis and GridLine parameters have been created to specify the axes to be used for grid spacing and the grid line styles, for each grid defined in the Grid vector. The Grid3DDepth parameter has also been added to override the default depth chosen for all grids.

See Grid for details.

More Bar Types and Attributes NEW FEATURE Five new shapes have been added to the Bar, Combo and Stock Charts, including TRIANGLEBAR, DIAMONDBAR, CYLINDER, PIEHORIZONTAL, and PIEVERTICAL. These new shapes can be used to display a wider range of eye-popping charts.

The BarWidth and BarHeight parameters have been added to allow users to override the default width and height selected for bar sets. The BarWidth attribute represents a percentage of the bar's available width. For our purposes, available width is that space that may be used without "stepping" on any other bars. The BarHeight is only used if the bar shape is PIEHORIZONTAL or PIEVERTICAL, and uses the BarHeight percentage to scale the symbol based on available height.

Axis Scrolling/Zooming ENHANCEMENT All charts now allow scrolling/zooming on all axes (except for the bottom axis in a Strip Chart), including the bottom axis in a Bar Chart, Combo Chart and Stock Chart, as well as the left axis in a Box Chart and Time Chart. Previously, those special axes did not supporting scrolling/zooming. A number of minor display bugs have also been fixed when using scrolling/zooming.
Active Labels For Axis Labels ENHANCEMENT The BottomActiveLabels, TopActiveLabels, LeftActiveLabels, RightActiveLabels and BarActiveLabels parameters have been added to all charts to specify active labels for one or more of the axis tic labels defined. The active labels are displayed when the mouse "dwells" near the tic label, and can optionally invoke an arbitrary URL for "drill-down" processing, based on the axis tic labels (or bar labels in a Bar Chart).

See Axis and NFBarchartApp for details.

Box Chart ENHANCEMENT The BoxHeight parameter has been added to specify a fixed box height in pixels, rather than using the default height that is chosen based on the size of the screen and the number of bars being displayed.
Stacked Bar Labels ENHANCEMENT The StackLabel parameter has been added to the Bar, Combo, and Stock Charts to allow the user to specify how the default label for each bar in the stack should be generated, either using the total accumulated value or the individual bar value.

See NFBarchartApp for details.

Piechart Active Labels ENHANCEMENT The active dwell area for the pie chart has been enlarged to be the entire pie slice, not just the small area around the label. This makes it easier for users to get additional information about each data slice.
Region Image Sizing ENHANCEMENT In previous versions, background images defined in regions were automatically tiled if they were smaller than the region, or clipped if they were too big. Starting in Version 2.0b1, regions allow the specification of the "SIZE" attribute which will scale the image to the size of the region.
Snapshot Server ENHANCEMENT Added the -key option to allow users to define the license key on the command line.
XY Chart BUG FIX Fixed a problem related to the display of default active labels for data points added using the AddDataPoint command during dynamic chart updates. Now, default labels are displayed properly for all data points that are dynamically added.
Support for DOS Drive Letter in Pathname BUG FIX Fixed a problem caused by the use of DOS drive letters in the paths specified in the CLASSPATH environment variable. Now, absolute pathnames can include a drive letter when specifying an IMAGE file or license file location.


Change History For Previous Versions