This section will give a very brief high level overview of the ChartDirector object model, which may be helpful for understanding of subsequent ChartDirector tutorials. The full details object model and API are documented in the
ChartDirector Reference section.
At the top level, all ChartDirector charts (including meters) are derivatives of the
BaseChart object. The following describes the top level class hierarchy.
- BaseChart : Base class for all charts (including meters) in ChartDirector.
- PieChart : Represents pie and donut charts
- XYChart : Represents all charts that have x and y axes.
- PolarChart : Represents all charts that uses polar coordinates.
- BaseMeter : Base class for all meters in ChartDirector.
- MultiChart : A container chart that can be used to combine multiple BaseChart objects together.
The
BaseChart class represents features common to all ChartDirector charts, such as the chart background, legend box (
LegendBox), titles and custom text boxes (
TextBox). It also contains a
DrawArea tool, which allows you to add arbitrary custom drawings to the chart.
The
PieChart class, as it name implies, represents pie charts, including donut charts. PieChart objects contain
Sector objects, which represent the sectors in the pie charts.
The
XYChart class represents all chart types that have x and y axes. Each XYChart object contains a
PlotArea object, representing the rectangular region where the chart is actually drawn. A XYChart also contains
Axis objects, representing the x and y axes.
The actual chart types in a XYChart are implemented as layers. The available layers are listed below. A XYChart can contain many layers, so combination and custom chart types can easily be created.
Layer | Description |
---|
BarLayer | Represent all style of bar charts, such as simple bar charts, multi-bar charts, stacked bar charts, multi-stacked bar charts, percentage bar charts, depth bar charts.
|
LineLayer | Represent line charts. |
SplineLayer | Represent spline line charts. |
StepLineLayer | Represent step line charts.
|
TrendLayer | Represent trend line charts. A trend line the best fit straight line computed using the least square method.
|
InterLineLayer | A layer used for filling regions between two lines. The lines can come from LineLayer, SplineLayer, StepLineLayer, TrendLayer, or from Mark.
|
ScatterLayer | Represents scatter and bubble charts. |
VectorLayer | Represents vector charts. |
AreaLayer | Represent area charts. |
HLOCLayer | Represent high-low-open-close charts. |
CandleStickLayer | Represent candlestick charts. |
BoxWhiskerLayer | Represent box-whisker charts. |
The above layers are derived from the
Layer class, which represents features common to all layers.
Each chart layer contains one or more
DataSet objects. A DataSet object represents a data series. Several chart types require multiple data series, such as high-low-open-close, candlestick and box-whisker charts. Other chart types support combining the data series in various ways. For example, in a bar chart, multiple data series can be combined to form a stacked bar chart, percentage bar chart, multi-bar chart, multi-stacked bar chart, etc.
The
PolarChart class represents polar and radar charts. Each PolarChart object contains a
RadialAxis and an
AngularAxis. The actual chart types in a PolarChart are implemented as layers. A PolarChart can contain many layers, so combination and custom chart types can easily be created.
The available layers are listed below.
The above layers are derived from the
PolarLayer class, which represents features common to all layers.
The
BaseMeter class is the base class for all meters. It represents features common to all meters. A BaseMeter object contains
MeterPointer objects for representing meter pointers.
The
AngularMeter class represents angular meters, which are meters of which the meter pointers rotate to show the readings.
The
LinearMeter class represents horizontal and vertical linear meters, which are meters of which the meter pointers move linearly to show the readings.
A
MultiChart object is a container for combining multiple
BaseChart objects into a combined chart object.
FinanceChart is a financial charting library built on top of the main ChartDirector library. It extends
MultiChart by implementing many financial indicators, and allowing complex financial charts to be composed easily.
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