Nevron Chart for .NET 3.0 - 30 Oct 2009

asp:review

Nevron Chart for .NET 3.0

Easy and Affordable Charting Solutions

By Mike Riley

There must be a major market for charting components inthe .NET world. Most every major .NET component vendor offers a chart controlin their suites, and several companies specialize in extensive, highly flexiblecharting components for the .NET environment. Each vendor has a differentinterpretation on the best way to graphically display data, and Nevron hasadded their own version to this crowded market. Although it isn t the broadestassembly with the most variety of chart types, it will sufficiently fill theneeds of most developers seeking an easy and inexpensive commercial solution.

Figure 1: Nevron s Web forms editionchart control parameters can be easily experimented with via the well organizedbrowser examples.

Nevron Chart offers a good deal of chart types in its ownright. These include 2D and 3D styles for area, bar, bubble, combo, contour,financial, floating, grid, high-low, line, mesh surface, pie, point, polar,radar, stock, and shape charts. The editable properties of each of these typesmay not be as exhaustive as other charting components, but, frankly, unless anabsolute granular approach is needed, the properties that are exposed are morethan adequate for tweaking the right look of a chart s final output. A chartwizard that can be used to generate a chart design both inside and outside theVisual Studio.NET environment is as easy to use as the rest of the product.And, unlike some of the more expensive alternatives, Nevron Chart can beexpanded to full screen view. Finally it s easy to see what a chart looks likein an expanded window!

Figure 2: The new features in the3.0 release include direct binary stream output, as well as enhancements in the2D bar, area, and line charts and background borders.

A new rendering engine has been added to the 3.0 release,which allows developers to select between either OpenGL or GDI+, both of whichcan be selected either at design or run time. This can be applied to bitmap andwindow rendering surfaces, providing slick visual effects for softer shadingand a more contemporary look. The new release also includes filter effects for2D charts, including blur, bevel, emboss, lighting, and glow filters that canbe applied for a more professional and aesthetically appealing design. HTML-styletext embedded into the chart s display and improved HTML image maps integratedinto the outbound image stream have also enhanced the product. The Data Zoomand Data Cursor tools provide end-user zoom for detail, and hover text featuresallow for drill down and better labeling of data. The latest version has alsobeen improved with faster chart rendering, making it a desired upgrade forsatisfied users of the 2.0 or earlier release. In all, the improvements from2.0 to 3.0 are significant and worth the 80% discount toward the upgrade cost.

Figure 3: Included in the product isthe Windows forms edition of the control, which functions identically to its Webforms counterpart.

I experienced only two minor bumps with the product. First,with the addition of the GDI+ enhancement, the NevronTemp folder must be givenwrite permissions to render the charts to a temporary folder before delivery. Thiswon t be a problem for most developers, but it could provide a concern for themost security-conscious administrators.

Figure 4: The Chart Wizard offersfull-screen construction.

Second, a minor nuisance with the tree view on the example sWeb demonstration page only works with Internet Explorer, so those developersusing Firefox or Opera will need to switch to IE to see the demonstrations. Thankfully,the chart output and control manipulation demonstrations seem to work just finein these alternative browsers. Interested developers can manipulate the chartproperties via the online demonstration at http://www.nevron.com/NChartServerExamples/index.htm.

Although Nevron Chart for .NET may not be the mostcomprehensive chart control on the market today, it is certainly one of themost affordable and, quite honestly, offers the bulk of what most developersseeking a flexible charting solution expect to use in most straightforwardchart visualization circumstances.

Mike Rileyis an advanced computing professional specializing in emerging technologies andnew development trends. Readers may contact him at mailto:[email protected].

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Web Site: http://www.nevron.com

Price: Single-developerlicense, US$569; single-developer license with source, US$2,269; site license, US$3,129;site license with source, US$12,489.