The following enhancements were made to C1WebChart in the 2006 v3 release of ComponentOne Studio Enterprise:

Feature Overview

Enhancements have been made to WebChart for ASP.NET to allow the user more flexibility for creating Web applications, such as added AJAX support, new callback events, new SmartDesigner, and new chart types.

Cylinder, Cone, and Pyramid Charts

Cylinder, Cone, and Pyramid charts are now available by setting the Appearance property to Cylinder, Cone, or Pyramid. The Appearance property is located in the Bar object of each ChartGroup object. For additional information on these chart types, see Variations of Bar Charts.

Ability to Plot 3D Bar Charts Using Multiple Rows

When the Use3D property is set to true to enable the 3D Charts you can use the Bar.MultiRow property to display a new row for each bar or column in the cluster. For additional information on the Bar.MultiRow property see, Special Bar Chart Properties.

Smart Designer

The Smart Designer allows you to quickly set Chart properties without leaving the design form. This solves the earlier problem of having to drill down through Chart's properties in the Properties window. The new Smart Designer provides the following features:

·      Built-in toolbars and editors.

·      Ability to add/edit labels through the Edit labels dialog box.

·      Connect labels to any series on the plot area of the chart by performing a drag-and-drop operation.

·      Labels for each chart element are provided for better user interaction with the chart elements.

For additional information on the Smart Designer see, Working with the Smart Designer.

AJAX Support

C1WebChart now supports Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) through the use of the C1WebChart.GeneralCallback event. AJAX is a new approach to creating rich, responsive Web applications like we see in desktop applications. In a desktop application, the user gets immediate responses to their requests. In a traditional Web application, the user’s input value is sent to the server, or in other words, a postback is performed, and the server then acts upon the data and responds by sending back a new Web page with the new item. The performance of this Web application is not responsive; the user must wait for the server to respond. But now, with AJAX, the user does not have to wait.

The key advantage of AJAX is that it does not require a postback when communicating with the server. Instead of loading a Web page in the server, the browser loads an AJAX engine. The user’s request is sent to the server, the work being done in the background, and the affected portion of the current Web page is updated instantly without reloading the entire page. This avoids the flicker on the screen you see with postbacks.