VBChart review
Forgot to blog about the nice review we got of VBChart at VBCity.NET:
Graphics Server .NET and SpreadsheetGear .NET
We just added a nice article about integrating Graphics Server .NET and SpreadsheetGear .NET.
Read all about it here: http://www.graphicsserver.com/samplecode/index.aspx?sample=DotNet%2fWeb%2fSpreadSheetGear+and+Graphics+Server
Visual Studio Magazine reviews Graphics Server .NET
From the October issue of Visual Studio Magazine:
September 2, 2005
Graphics Server .NET provides an outstanding set of tools for adding graphs to your VS.NET applications. These tools work within both WinForms and ASP.NET, and they support a large variety of graphs with an object-oriented API that is both powerful and easy to use. Version 2.5 adds support for widgets and other graphics devices that take charting well beyond the presentation graphics arena (see Figure 1).
Graphics Server .NET supports all of the standard graphs, including pie, line, area, bar, and Gantt charts. Most of these charts have both 2-D and 3-D versions. It also supports radar, scatter, polar, and a variety of other graphs you might not have heard of. All of these graphs are implemented with the developer in mind. You can control fonts, scales, captions, and overall style. Further, you can easily set the graphs to show lines at set standard deviations from the norm, a common requirement for quality measurements. You can also color-code unusual values automatically. You can configure these features at design time using Graphics Server's Chart, Layout, and Style designers. The WinForms version of Graphics Server .NET also provides property pages that allow users to modify chart characteristics at run time without any additional developer code.
Graphics Server .NET 2.5 goes beyond presentation graphics to support widgets, which are special devices such as thermometers, meters, gauges, and sliders that you can use for dashboards or as special controls. These devices support a rich event interface so that you can allow users to modify data directly using widgets. The devices can also help users make quick observations about important status variables.
Note that there is strong support for event-based development throughout Graphics Server .NET. As you would expect, some events are available in the WinForms version, but not the ASP.NET version. However, the ASP.NET version provides tools for managing the large number of images that can pile up on a Web site. Graphics Server draws a new image and stores it on your Web site whenever a user creates a new graph. Graphics Server provides properties to prevent these image files from building up.
Graphics Server's support is both responsive and knowledgeable, and the product documentation is excellent. It features both introductory and reference documentation and lots of sample code for both C# and VB.NET. All of this is integrated into a Resource Center that does a good job of showcasing what is possible with the product's amazing variety of graphs.
Graphics Server is an impressive product that supports many different graphs in ASP.NET and WinForms, as well as custom-developed graph types. It's easy to use and strongly supported. I would like to see a document that clearly delineates what requires additional scripting in ASP.NET, but you can deduce most of the differences between WinForms and ASP.NET with a little common sense. Graphics Server .NET is a strong tool for helping your users understand and manage their data.
Charting and Graphing with VB .NET
Check out the new charting and graphing component for Visual Basic .NET at VBChart.com. This product works only with VB .NET and is priced aggressively compared to the other charting products.
Through December 23rd, 2005 there is a special price of $299 plus a couple of other goodies. Also, download an evaluation and you are eligible to win a free copy of the product from among that day's downloads.
VBChart supports all of the standard graph types you would expect as well support for both Win Forms and Web Forms in one package.
Calling Microsoft MVPs
We are again offering a free copy of Graphics Server .NET 3.0 to active Microsoft MVPs. If you are an MVP and would like to experience Zero to Pixel Perfect Graphs in Minutes send an email to davidj@graphicsserver.com with a link to your MVP profile.
Dare to Compare
We are using a new ad to highlight the benefits of Graphics Server .NET 3.0 when evaluating or comparing other competitive .NET charting components.
We think we have a pretty persuasive story to tell and we will offer a Starbucks card to anyone sending us an email telling us why we don't stack up to a competitor.
Graphics Server .NET released
Graphics Server .NET 3.0 was released last week and the response has been great. Developers really seem to like the new Interactive Designer/Wizard. It really makes designing graphs and charts at runtime a snap.
Graphics Server .NET 3.0 Beta Released
Lots of new product announcements coming out the door in the next 30 days.
Today we posted the beta for Graphics Server .NET 3.0. Cool features include:
- Interactive Designer / Wizard - now you can create great looking graphs in about 5 minutes or less. Includes the ability to drag/resize graph elements like title, annotations, legend in a wysiwyg environment. Nothing like it out there...
- Live Charts - update charts on a web page without redrawing the entire html page. AJAX stuff but really easy to use
- Enhanced Widgets - new advanced look to widgets along with other enhancements
- Animated GIFs and more...
Get a free beta download at www.graphicsserver.com/dotnet
Free Widgets
In the spirit of starting the new year off right I thought I would do something nice for readers of my blog and those who just stop in.
If you are a .NET developer you can get a free copy of Graphics Server .NET: Widgets Edition
The Widgets Edition provides significant customization and interaction opportunities for each device type. Major features include:
- Ships with both win form and web form controls
- Unlimited annotations
- Device level events
- Needle level events
- Zone level events
- Bulb level events
- Custom devices
- Meters
- Adjustable meter scale (0-360 degrees)
- Multiple needles
- Multiple zones
- Gauges
- Vertical or horizontal
- Multiple needles
- Sliders
- Vertical or horizontal
- Single Needle
- Adjustable needle fill color
- Thermometers
- Vertical or horizontal
- Fill to value
- Adjustable value fill colors
- Stoplights & LEDs
- Multiple bulbs or lights
- Customizable colors for any bulb
- Active and inactive states
To get your free copy (download only - physical product available for just the shipping charge) just go through our order process. Offer good through January 16, 2005.
Here's to a great 2005.
From Down Under
Nice to see a post from Peter Stanski, a Microsoft MSDN Regional Director and
Solutions Architect, MVP from Australia about Graphics Server:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/pstanski/Blog/cns!1prULXMQl9mTgTxOQQj0Cz4w!115.entry
Good luck with adding graphing to your application Peter!
