Step
1 - Add the applet html code to your web page
In your web page place the following code, where you wish
the line graph to appear,
<applet
code="VbarchartApplet.class" archive="Vbarchart.jar"
width="500" height="420">
</applet>
Adjusting
the "width" and "height" element of
this applet tag to specify the size (in pixels) of the desired
graph display.
^^
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Step
2 - Set up the Configuration data.
The Bar Graph applet provides the following three options
for inputting the configuration data.
a)
Configuration File.
The applet will read all the configuration parameters
from a specified file. To use this option add the following
PARAM tag to your html code between the <applet>
and </applet> tags,
<PARAM
name="chartproperties" value="barprops.txt">
where
"barprops.txt" is the name of the file containing
the configuration data ( click
here for an example file ). As you will see from the
example file each property is specified on a name, value
basis. Note that comments may be added to this file by
placing "<!--" at the beginning of a line.
Adjust the property values to specify the characteristics
of the bar graph and then place this file in the same
directory as your web page.
For
a full description of each property please see the "Configuration
Options and Parameters".
b)
HTML PARAM tags.
Using this option the applet will read all the configuration
information from the standard applet <PARAM> tags.
Simply add the <PARAM> tags, contained in the paramtags.txt
file (click
here), to your html between the <APPLET> and
</APPLET> tag, adjusting the values to specify the
characteristics of the bar graph.
For
a full description of each property please see the "Configuration
Options and Parameters".
c)
Server Side process
This option allows the bar graph applet to obtain
all the configuration data from a server side application.
The server side script should be designed to output the
configuration data in the same format as the file in option
a) above.
The
following PARAM tag should be added to your html between
the <APPLET> and </APPLET> tags.
<PARAM
name="chartproperties" value="[URL of Server
Process]">
inserting
the URL of your server side application in the value element
of this tag.
For an example script see BarConfigServlet.java
in the ServerTemplateScripts directory.
For
most implementations supplying the configuration data
either from a data file or HTML parameters will be the
most efficient, however supplying this data via a server
side script is useful where you wish to hold this data
in a database. A server side script would then be used
to read the config data from the database and then supply
to the applet at runtime.
^^
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Step
3 - Set up the Bar Graph data
As with the configuration data there are three options for
supplying the bar data to the applet,
a)
Data File.
The applet will read all the data from a specified file.
To use this option add the following PARAM tag to your
html code between the <applet> and </applet>
tags,
<PARAM
name="chartdata" value="bardata.txt">
where
"bardata.txt" is the name of the file containing
the data ( click
here for an example file ). As you will see from the
example file each piece of data is specified on a name,
value basis. The first element of each line represents
the data name (specifying the series and data order) and
then the value. (Also note that comments may be added
to this file by placing "<!--" at the beginning
of a line.).
Simply create a similar file, adding your data in the
values. For a full explanation of this file please see
the "Retrieving Data from Files" under the "Data
and Configuration" section ( or click
here).
b)
Server Side process
This option is the most powerful and gives the applet
the ability to retrieve data from databases without compromising
database security. This method involves specifying a server
side script in the html page which in turn returns the
data to the graph applet, giving enormous flexibility
for data acquisition.
The
server side script can be constructed in the language
of your choice and as such can be written to acquire data
from the widest variety of sources, multiple databases
etc.
To
instruct the applet to retrieve data from a server side
script simply insert the following <PARAM> tag between
the <APPLET> and </APPLET> tags in your html
page.
<PARAM
name="chartdata" value="[URL of Server
Process]"
inserting
the URL of your server side application in the value element
of this tag. The
server side script should be designed to output the data
in the same format as the file in option a) above
For
an example script see BarDataServlet.java
in the ServerTemplateScripts directory.
For
a full description of constructing a server side script
which retrieves data from a database see the section "Connecting
the Graph to a database" under the "Data and
Configuration" section ( or click
here).
c)
HTML PARAM tags.
Using this option the applet will read all the graph
data from the standard applet <PARAM> tags. Simply
add the <PARAM> tags, contained in the dataparamtags.txt
file (click
here), to your html between the <APPLET> and
</APPLET> tag, adjusting the values to specify the
data for the bar graph.
This
option is the simplest method of supplying data to the
graph applet and is probably most useful where the graph
data is either static or the html page is constructed
dynamically, (e.g.. Via ASP or JSP.)
^^
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Step
4 - Upload the jar file to your web server.
The final step is to simply to place the Vbarchart.jar
file in the same directory as your web page. At only 16kb
this jar file contains all the applet code for producing
the graph in your page and as such is very fast to load
and run.
^^
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If you
experience any difficulties implementing then please do
not hesitate to contact us at,
support@jpowered.com