Step 1 - Add the applet html code to your web page
In your web page place the following code, where you wish the graph to appear,
Adjusting the "width" and "height" element of this
applet tag to specify the size (in pixels) of the desired graph display.
Step 2 - Set up the Configuration data.
The Area Graph applet provides the following three options for inputting the configuration data.
a) Configuration File.
The applet will read all the configuration parameters from a specified file. To use this option add the following PARAM
tag to your html code between the <applet> and </applet> tags,
where "../../area_graph/Documentation/areaprops.txt" is the name of the file containing the
configuration data ( click here for an example file ). As you will see from
the example file each property is specified on a name, value basis.
Adjust the property values to specify the characteristics of the graph
and then place this file in the same directory as your web page.
b) HTML PARAM tags. Using this option the applet will read all the configuration information from the standard applet <PARAM> tags.
Simply add the <PARAM> tags, contained in the paramtags.txt file (click
here), to your html between the <APPLET> and </APPLET> tag, adjusting the values to specify the characteristics
of the area graph.
c) Server Side process This option allows the area graph applet to obtain all the configuration data from a server side application. The server
side script should be designed to output the configuration data in the same format as the file in option a) above.
The following PARAM tag should be added to your html between the <APPLET>
and </APPLET> tags.
inserting the URL of your server side application in the value element
of this tag.
For an example script see AreaConfigServlet.java
in the ServerTemplateScripts directory.
For most implementations supplying the configuration data either from
a data file or HTML parameters will be the most efficient, however supplying this data via a server side script is useful
where you wish to hold this data in a database. A server side script would then be used to read the configuration data from
the database and then supply to the applet at runtime.
Step 3 - Set up the Graph data
As with the configuration data there are three options for supplying the data to the applet,
a) Data File.
The applet will read all the data from a specified file. To use this option add the following PARAM tag to your html code
between the <applet> and </applet> tags,
where "../../area_graph/Documentation/areadata.txt" is the name of the file containing the
data ( click here for an example file ). As you will see from the example
file each piece of data is specified on a name, value basis. The first element of each line represents the data name (specifying
the series and data order) and then the value.
Simply create a similar file, adding your data in the values. For a
full explanation of this file please see the "Retrieving Data from Files" under the "Data and Configuration"
section ( or click here).
b) Server Side process This option is the most powerful and gives the applet the ability to retrieve data from databases without compromising
database security. This method involves specifying a server side script in the html page which in turn returns the data
to the graph applet, giving enormous flexibility for data acquisition.
The server side script can be constructed in the language of your choice
and as such can be written to acquire data from the widest variety of sources, multiple databases etc.
To instruct the applet to retrieve data from a server side script simply
insert the following <PARAM> tag between the <APPLET> and </APPLET> tags in your html page.
inserting the URL of your server side application in the value element
of this tag. The server side script should be designed to output
the data in the same format as the file in option a) above
For an example script see AreaDataServlet.java
in the ServerTemplateScripts directory.
For a full description of constructing a server side script which retrieves
data from a database see the section "Connecting the Graph to a database" under the "Data and Configuration"
section ( or click here).
c) HTML PARAM tags. Using this option the applet will read all the graph data from the standard applet <PARAM> tags. Simply add the
<PARAM> tags, contained in the dataparamtags.txt file (click
here), to your html between the <APPLET> and </APPLET> tag, adjusting the values to specify the data for
the graph.
This option is the simplest method of supplying data to the graph applet
and is probably most useful where the graph data is either static or the html page is constructed dynamically, (e.g.. Via
ASP , PHP or JSP.)
Step 4 - Upload the jar file to your web server.
The final step is to simply to place the AreaGraph.jar
file in the same directory as your web page. At only 14kb this jar file contains all the applet code for producing the graph
in your page and as such is very fast to load and run.
If you experience any difficulties implementing then please do not hesitate
to contact us at, JPowered Support
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