Charting application overview
This chapter describes the basic requirements of a charting application and demonstrates how to use the BIRT charting API to create a new chart and modify an existing chart definition. The BIRT chart engine provides the BIRT charting API. Classes and interfaces in this API support:
*Writing Java applications to generate many types of charts, such as bar charts, line charts, pie charts, scatter charts, and stock charts.
*Customizing the properties of a chart to fit the users’ requirements.
*Modifying an existing chart item in a BIRT report design or adding a chart to an existing report design.
This chapter shows how to customize an existing chart and create a new chart within a BIRT application. Use of the charting API in a stand-alone application is beyond the scope of this book. For examples of completed charting applications, download the BIRT samples from the BIRT website.
This chapter discusses only the most important of the more than 400 classes and interfaces in the BIRT charting API. For information about the complete set of charting API classes and interfaces, see the online Javadoc. To view the Javadoc, open the online help and navigate to BIRT Charting Programmer Reference
ReferenceAPI Reference.