outputChart

The outputChart component uses the JCharts open source charting utility (http://jcharts.sourceforge.net/) to create charts. The two main types of charts that can be created with this component are pie charts and axis charts.

Summary of chart subtypes:

• pie
  
  1. pie2d
  2. pie3d
• axis
  
  1. area
  2. areastacked
  3. bar
  4. barclustered
  5. barstacked
  6. line
  7. point

The participation of this component with the jsf lifecycle allows developers to hook actionListeners to a clientSideImageMap. This feature can be harnessed to provide drill down behavior.

The outputChart component provides a flexible way of defining component data. The data for the outputChart component can be defined statically in the jsf page or dynamically using a bean.

        Defining the colors of the chart in the jsf page:
        <ice:outputChart colors="red, blue, green" .... />

        Defining the colors using a bean:
        <ice:outputChart colors="#{bean.colors}" ..../>

        The "colors" method of the bean may return either a java.util.List of java.awt.Color or an array of java.awt.Color.

Axis type charts can be generated using many data sets. The data can be set using a two dimensional double array.

        Defining the data for an axis type chart in the jsf page for two data sets:
        <ice:outputChart data="10, 30, 40, 33: 30, 20, 30, 40"/>

        NOTE: the colon(":") is used as the identifier for a new data set.

        Defining the data for an axis type chart in the jsf page for three data sets:
        <ice:outputChart data="10, 30, 40, 33: 30, 20, 30, 40: 33, 44, 22, 55"/>

        Defining the data for an axis type chart using a bean:
        <ice:outputChart data="#{bean.data}" ....../>


        The "data" method of the bean may return either a java.util.List of double array for each pair value, or a double array.

By default the chart component renders only on the first render cycle and any further render requests will not cause it to be re-rendered unless specified. The rendering of a chart can be an expensive operation if it renders on every render phase. The renderOnSubmit attribute lets the developer decide when to render the chart.

//render the default chart with the default data (default type is bar)
<ice:outputChart />

//render barstacked type of chart
<ice:outputChart type="barstacked"
        chartTitle="Book Sales"
        yaxisTitle="Sales"
        xaxisTitle="Months"
        xaxisLabels="Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr"
        labels="JSF, AJAX"
        data="20, 55, 22, 44: 22, 33, 44, 55"
/>

//render pie3d chart
<ice:outputChart type="pie3d"
        chartTitle="Book Sales"
        labels="JSF, AJAX, Web Services"
        data="99, 50, 20"
        colors="blue, green, cyan"
/>