The IlvImageDecoration class

Programmer's documentation > Developing with the JViews Charts SDK > Displaying an image > The IlvImageDecoration class

The IlvImageDecoration is a predefined decoration class that displays an image within the plotting area of a chart.

An image can be drawn according to three different modes:

TILED: The image is drawn as a replicated pattern in the plot area.

SCALED: The image is scaled so that it fills the plot area.

ANCHORED: The image is drawn at a fixed position.

The predefined position for the ANCHORED mode is defined as one of the javax.swing.Swing Constants compass directions.

These directions are:

CENTER

NORTH

NORTH_EAST

EAST

SOUTH_EAST

SOUTH

SOUTH_WEST

WEST

NORTH_WEST

Here is an example of code that creates and adds a SCALED image decoration to a chart:

IlvChart chart = ...;

try {

java.net.URL url = new File("logo.gif").toURL();

// The last parameter is taken into account only in ANCHORED mode.

        IlvImageDecoration deco = new                         IlvImageDecoration(url,IlvImageDecoration.SCALED, 0);

chart.addDecoration(deco);

} catch (java.net.MalformedURLException e) {

e.printStackTrace();

}

NOTE 	To preserve the image during serialization, you must use the IlvImageDecoration constructor that takes a java.net.URL as the location of the image. Other constructors do not preserve the image.

The following table shows the properties of the IlvImageDecoration class.

Property	Methods	Default Value
Drawing mode.	getMode
Image location.	getAnchor setAnchor	SwingConstants.CENTER
Drawing order relative to the drawing of the graphical representations of data and to other decorations.	getDrawOrder setDrawOrder	IlvChart.DRAW_BELOW
Visibility.	isVisible setVisible	true

Drawing mode

The drawing mode property is initialized at construction time. It must be one of the TILED, SCALED or ANCHORED IlvImageDecoration constants. If the latter is used, a predefined position must also be specified by means of the anchor property.

Image anchor

When using the ANCHORED drawing mode, the image location within the plot area must be specified either at construction time or by means of the setAnchor method. By default, an anchored image is drawn at the center of the plotting area.

Drawing order

You can control the drawing order of the image decoration with respect to the charts representation and to other decorations. This drawing order is defined by the drawOrder property. See Decorations for more information on ordering decorations.