Creating a Chart with SQL 2000 Reporting Services - Configuring Chart Axes and Customizing
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In the General tab, the title of the chart is defined. A name is given to the chart and the type of chart may be chosen. Chart and plot area styles may be chosen, but that is not attempted here.
In the Data tab, the important configurations are made for the data that gets into the chart. The dataset is to be set to the dataset defined earleir [Dataset2] from the dropdown box. Now click the Add... button next to the first textarea box with the label Values:. This brings up the next Edit Chart Value applet.
There are two items to be filled, one is a label and other is a value. The value is chosen from the dropdown box. For some strange reason the value shows sum(Fields!Second.Value). But what is needed to be plotted is Fields!Second.value. This correction can be applied here. In a similar manner, the three column values are applied to the chart by invoking this applet three times.
This shows the three items added, First, Second, Expr1003, because the third item is calculated from the third column.
In the next Textarea box, the default shown is taken when the Add.. button is clicked. The value of this corresponds to Fields!t.Value.
Moving on to the X-axis using the next tab, the x-axis title, its position in the chart, the minimum and maximum values of x-axis can be set as shown. Similarly the Y-axis related items can be set in the next Y-axis tab.
In the Legends tab, properties can be chosen to show the chart legends that improve the presentation value of the chart. You may see the type of control you can exert on the Legend in this picture. Alternatively it is also possible to drag and drop items from the fieldlist onto the chart area, with the fine-tuning carried out from the properties dialogue. When all of this is finished, the chart has the following apperance in the design pane.
The table has the following appearance when displayed in the preview mode.
This is how the chart appears in the preview mode.
Well, let's go ahead and look at the chart created by MS Excel for the same data. How do you compare Dundas vs. Excel?
The chart information can be exported to various formats as shown by right clicking the finished chart in the preview mode. The next picture shows part of an exported xml file opened in an IE6.0 browser. Exported to the Excel format, the table and the graph gets housed in a workbook's worksheet, as in the preview mode.
Summary and Conclusions
The steps shown in this article can be rapidly implemented, and charts and reports can be prepared in record time, a truly RAD feat. Reports once developed can be deployed using the properly configured ReportServer, which works seamlessly with the SQL 2000 server and the IIS. This technology is still evolving and may morph lot more than its present avatar. The Table and the Chart controls can be customized to your heart's content, although only a small portion was shown. The Dundas chart control must be a pretty good one for Microsoft to bundle with their product. I believe that the speed, the small footprint, the the extensibility, and the ease with which it was integrated with .NET Framework were all the important selling points.
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