NetCharts® Designer Features
Accelerated Development for Data Presentation Applications
What Does NetCharts Designer Produce?
NetCharts Designer creates template files that describe data presentation elements. This may include any combination of templates for data connectivity, charts, tables, and pages. Each of these elements can be used standalone or as part of a larger application.
Specifically, NetCharts Designer produces:
- Chart Definition Language (CDL) templates. These chart templates describe the look and behavior of charts. The chart templates can be exported for runtime use within any of the NetCharts® products or can be used to create static images.
- Page Layout (PGL) templates. PGL files are used to create pages for data presentation applications. They can be exported to JSP, ASP/.NET, Cold Fusion, and PDF.
- Table Definition (TBL) templates. Table templates define column and row styling for tabular (alphanumeric text-based) data.
- Named Data Set (NDS) templates.
Chart Definition Language (CDL) Templates
A CDL template, identified with a .cdx or .cdl file extension, is a plaintext file that describes the look and behavior of a given chart. In addition to presentation information, each template may include runtime variables, data references, and style references. CDL templates can be exported for use in any of the NetCharts® brand products, including NetCharts Server, NetCharts Pro, and NetCharts Applets.
Page Layout (PGL) Templates
A PGL template, identified with a .pgl file extension, is a XML formatted file that describes the style, layout, contents, and behavior of a data presentation page. Each page can contain any combination of charts, tables, images, text, HTML form elements, downloadable data references and custom code segments. Drilldown behavior and variable passing can be controlled from the PGL template. PGL files can be exported for use with JSP, ASP/.NET or Cold Fusion environments. PGL files can also be used to generate PDF documents.
Table Definition (TBL) Templates
A TBL template, identified with a .tbl file extension, is a plaintext file that provides parameters for styling, numerical formatting, and many other presentation attributes for data tables.
Named Data Set (NDS) Templates
A NDS template, identified with an .ndx file extension, refers to a set of parameters used to retrieve a set of data from a given data source. NDS files can be configured to request data from many different databases, XML sources, flat files, or custom/legacy systems. NDS files are used by data clients; for example, charts and tables that use runtime data.
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Development
The NetCharts Designer Preview Browser saves time by providing a continuously up-to-date view of the current development. As changes are made to the data, chart, table, or page templates, the view automatically refreshes with the new information.
Data Client Data Binding
NetCharts Designer's Data Binding panel allows developers to quickly map data from any data source into the appropriate chart or table data client. User can select and preview the data source, and then "bind" specific rows and columns to chart or table elements.
Dynamic Variables
This important feature can dramatically cut development time by reducing the number of templates required for an application. Developers can create a single template, and then pass in different data or other customization parameters at runtime. Variables dynamically modify Named Data Set (NDS) data queries, chart templates, table templates, and even page elements.
Shared Styles Using CSS
NetCharts Designer utilizes Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) classes to create and reuse any number of font, layout, color, pattern, and numerical formatting styles. This provides for a consistent and easily maintainable presentation.
Import And Export Utilities
Data presentation applications must be able to integrate seamlessly within their deployment environment. NetCharts Designer's import utilities provide for the easy inclusion of external image, data, and other files. The export feature offers a simple process to move from development to production, or to just produce static images and PDF reports.
Drag And Drop Page Layout
The best page layouts are usually discovered interactively. With NetCharts Designer, charts, tables, images, text blocks, and other page elements can be effortlessly dropped on a page and then moved around for the maximum effect.
Drilldown Configuration
NetCharts Designer provides powerful, simple-to-use dialogs to configure drilldown operations between report or dashboard pages. The dialogs provide information about the target page and variables passed from source page.
Data Functions/Process Modules
NetCharts Designer contains built-in data tools and extensible "hooks" to convert raw data into meaningful information. One or more built-in or custom data functions can be "chained" together in order to produce the appropriate output.
Add robust analytics in minutes with NetCharts Analytics. The NetCharts Analytics module delivers a powerful library of analytic functions to provide realtime intelligent data calculations and statistical process controls. Users can apply sophisticated data transformations to raw or minimally processed data; the resultant data can then be easily displayed in graphical or tabular formats.
Wizard-based Development
Wizards for file import/export and data, chart, table, and page creation are supplied by NetCharts Designer to simplify the development process.
Common IDE Features
NetCharts Designer includes support for many common Integrated Development Environment (IDE) features including:
- Workspace configuration
- Task list support
- Configuration control support
- File search
Additional NetCharts Designer Information:
- Overview
- Specifications
- Product Brochure (663KB PDF)
- Tutorials for NetCharts Designer v5.5 (6.17MB PDF)
- Using NetCharts Designer to build NetCharts Applets and NetCharts Pro applications (79KB PDF)
- Developers' Resources
