Dynamic Graphics

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   I already use QuickPDF, very successfully indeed, to generate PDFs from templates with empty form fields. I can also add dynamic images, such as an employee's photo as well as barcodes (employee enrollment number for instance).

But now I want to generate dynamic graphs, on the fly, and add them to the PDF. Say that I want to add a sales per region graph to this employee PDF. I have the data at hand, just dont know what I can use to generate a graph (a JPG file) with this data.

In other words :

I need some tool that can generate several kinds of graphs as JPG files. It may be used on a server-side context, on a web page. So, from my web script, I may want to use this tool (generate the JPG graph and then generate the PDF and then release it to the web browser).

Of course, it may be also used on a batch context, when I want to generate a bunch of PDF files. But since I can do it for a single one as above, of course I can do the same for a lot of them.

Because of this, I think that some sort of command line tool would be good. Or even some product with the same interfaces as QuickPDF, that is, ActiveX or DLL's. 

Do you know some product as affordable as QuickPDF ? 

Thanks in advance for your support !

BTW, the language I work with is XBase++, a 32 bits Clipper successor, capable of calling DLL's and ActiveX objects.

Thanks again !

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jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Dynamic Graphics Posted: 04 Mar 06 at 7:25AM
	I already use QuickPDF, very successfully indeed, to generate PDFs from templates with empty form fields. I can also add dynamic images, such as an employee's photo as well as barcodes (employee enrollment number for instance). But now I want to generate dynamic graphs, on the fly, and add them to the PDF. Say that I want to add a sales per region graph to this employee PDF. I have the data at hand, just dont know what I can use to generate a graph (a JPG file) with this data. In other words : I need some tool that can generate several kinds of graphs as JPG files. It may be used on a server-side context, on a web page. So, from my web script, I may want to use this tool (generate the JPG graph and then generate the PDF and then release it to the web browser). Of course, it may be also used on a batch context, when I want to generate a bunch of PDF files. But since I can do it for a single one as above, of course I can do the same for a lot of them. Because of this, I think that some sort of command line tool would be good. Or even some product with the same interfaces as QuickPDF, that is, ActiveX or DLL's. Do you know some product as affordable as QuickPDF ? Thanks in advance for your support ! BTW, the language I work with is XBase++, a 32 bits Clipper successor, capable of calling DLL's and ActiveX objects. Thanks again !

chicks Members Profile Find Members Posts Debenu Quick PDF Library Expert Joined: 29 Oct 05 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 251	Post Options Post Reply Quote chicks Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Mar 06 at 12:45PM
	http://www.rmchart.com/

jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06 Mar 06 at 8:27AM
	Hello Chicks As usual, your answers are very useful. I'm studying the product. Also, I'll have some work to adapt it to XBase++, which is the language I work with. Thank you so much !

chicks Members Profile Find Members Posts Debenu Quick PDF Library Expert Joined: 29 Oct 05 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 251	Post Options Post Reply Quote chicks Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06 Mar 06 at 11:50AM
	BTW, you may want to consider generating the graphs directly as PDF, which is a scalable vector format, instead of jpg/png. The reason is that the graphs, and particularly any text on them, will scale very well, and will remain highly readable when scaled. Raster formats don't scale at all well, and text will be jagged and difficult to read when scaled. iSEDQuickPDF has a number of functions for line, rectangle and arc drawing, so building your own graphing engine wouldn't be terribly difficult. There are a couple of tools available that create PDF graphs, which you can capture and include in your PDFs. See Jan's EasyPDF, EasyReports and EasyGrapher freeware here: http://jansfreeware.com/jftools.htm Another sophisticated commercial tool is here: http://www.fytek.com/products.php?pg=pdfcharts Edited by chicks

jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06 Mar 06 at 12:09PM
	OK. But the toold you mentioned (RmChart) is also nice because I also want to generate graphs for Web applications. There, jpg is a must. So, I could use RmChart not only for PDFs but also for Web. How bad is RmChart with PDFs ? Too bad ? On the other hand, do you know if the other suggested tools could also be used for Web Applications ? When I say Web Applications, I'm talking about a script that generates a dynamic content html page (with its graphs as JPG IMG tags)...

chicks Members Profile Find Members Posts Debenu Quick PDF Library Expert Joined: 29 Oct 05 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 251	Post Options Post Reply Quote chicks Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06 Mar 06 at 12:57PM
	Yes, if you want to use the output for both PDF and HTML, then you will probably want png (better in many respects than jpg). All I can say is try it, and see if it works for you in the PDFs.

jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07 Mar 06 at 6:28PM
	Another product I've seen and that looks nice is Chart Director : http://www.advsofteng.com/index.html Anyone else uses it ?