Creating a chart using the Designer

The main advantage is its simplicity and usability: in a few mouse clicks you will create and customize your charts through an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

1. Use the New Chart Wizard, which is open by default when you launch the Designer. The New Chart Wizard allows you to create a chart based on a template, or by loading data from a data source. (See Creating a new basic chart in Using the Designer.)

2. You can create your charts by using JViews Charts templates. JViews Charts template determines the basic structure for a chart and contains settings such as specific data model and style. You can also create your own templates from the current styling and data model. (See Using templates in Using the Designer.)

3. You can also choose among a predefined set of data sources:

Flat file: loads data from an existing text file (comma-separated or tab-separated values). See Loading data from a flat file in Using the Designer.

XML file: loads data from an XML file. See Loading your data in Using the Designer.

JDBC database: retrieves data values from database servers. See Loading data from a database (JDBC) in Using the Designer.

In-memory: data points are stored in memory with arrays of double primitives. See Loading data from memory in Using the Designer.

You can customize your charts in different ways to improve their appearance. (See Using more Designer features in Using the Designer.)

Switch to the Preview Mode to see the behavior of the chart as it will be in your application. This is useful for testing the appearances and behavior implemented through styling. (See Testing application behavior in Using the Designer.)

Save your chart with the extension .icpr (JViews Charts Project).

A project file is an association of a data source type (flat file, XML, JDBC or in-memory) and a style sheet ( .css file) and it is created when you save your chart for the first time.

When you save your work within the Designer, you saves three files: a project file, a style sheet, and a data file. The project file specifies the name of the style sheet file, the type and URL of the data source, and the name of the data file.