The Resource Data chart bean

Programmer's documentation > Developing with the JViews Gantt SDK > Resource Data charts > The Resource Data chart bean

Describes the properties of the Resource Data chart bean and shows how to incorporate a Resource Data chart into your application.

Basic architecture

Describes the properties and architecture of the IlvResourceDataChart class.

Basic steps in using the Resource Data chart bean - details

Explains how to incorporate a Resource Data chart into the code of your application.

Basic architecture

JViews Gantt features a high-level bean, called Resource Data chart bean. Its API is based on the IlvResourceDataChart class, which is a subclass of IlvScheduleDataChart. The bean encapsulates the Gantt and Charts libraries. Although the libraries can be used without the bean, you will find it easier to rely on the bean. Together with the IlvGanttModel interface, the bean is the main class for handling Resource Data charts in the JViews Gantt API.

The Resource Data chart displays numerical information derived from the resources in a Gantt data model. The default data displayed by the chart is the number of activities reserved by a resource at each point in time. This data is called resource loading. The Resource Data chart displays the numerical information as a standard Cartesian chart, where the x-axis represents time. In this regard, the Resource Data chart provides an alternate view of the data contained in a Gantt data model and complements the displays provided by the Gantt chart and Schedule chart beans.

The Resource Data Chart utilizes the rendering capabilities of the IlvChart class from the Charts library. The IlvChart class is encapsulated by IlvResourceDataChart, which exposes a relevant subset of the complete API of IlvChart. Therefore, you may find it useful to review Rogue Wave® JViews Charts Developing with the JViews Charts SDK, especially Introducing the Main Classes, for more detailed explanations of the JViews Charts architecture, the IlvChartclass itself, and its related classes. This section assumes that you are familiar with the basic concepts and architecture of the JViews Charts library.

The basic architecture of the IlvResourceDataChart bean is shown in the following figure with IlvChart expanded out to show a graphical representation of the chart.

The following figure shows the architecture of the Resource Data chart bean.

The following figure shows the chart in previous figure further expanded to show the subcomponents of the IlvChart.

As just mentioned, the Resource Data Chart encapsulates an IlvChart instance that provides the Cartesian chart rendering. The IlvChart is permanently bound to a single data source that is also encapsulated and is not accessible via the IlvResourceDataChart public API. The chart has a single chart renderer for its data source. The Resource Data Chart automatically creates an IlvDataSet implementation for each resource in the Gantt data model that is displayed. The datasets are instances of the IlvResourceDataSet class.

Basic steps in using the Resource Data chart bean - details

Explains what you need to do to incorporate a Resource Data chart into the code of your application.

To incorporate a Resource Data chart into your code:

1. To instantiate a Resource Data Chart and bind it to a Gantt data model, import the following packages as a minimum:

import ilog.views.gantt.*;

import ilog.views.schedule.*;

2. Create a Gantt data model that implements the IlvGanttModel interface.

The data model should contain resources and reservations that will be displayed by the Resource Data chart. Refer to Connecting to data for detailed information on how to instantiate different Gantt data model implementations and connect to your business data:

IlvGanttModel model = ...

3. Create the Resource Data chart bean instance with the following line of code:

IlvResourceDataChart chart = new IlvResourceDataChart();

4. Bind the Resource Data chart bean to the data model to enable the chart to display the resource and reservation information of the data model.

chart.setGanttModel(model);

5. Customize the appearance and behavior of the chart by using the API of the IlvResourceDataChart class and its constituent components. For example, to set the time interval displayed by the x-axis to one week and add a header at the top of the chart, use the following code:

chart.setVisibleDuration(IlvDuration.ONE_WEEK);

chart.setHeaderText("My Chart");

6. Add the Resource Data chart bean to the user interface of your application in the same way as any other Swing component.

For example, if your application uses standard http://java.sun.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/JFrame.html with a http://java.sun.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/awt/BorderLayout.html, you would add the chart to the center of the window like this:

JFrame appWindow = ...

appWindow.getContentPane().add(chart, BorderLayout.CENTER);