Descriptive Text Settings

PopChart Server Reference 4.0.5

Modifying Values in the Chart and Textbox Elements

The tags within the Textbox and Chart elements are very similar. HTML is used within the values, such as <p> for a new paragraph and <br /> for a line break. Variables, which are all in upper case letters and start with %, represent settings within the PopChart project. For example, the %SERIESNAME variables represents the name of the series being described.

Note: You are not limited to putting HTML between the tags. You can put any kind of text between the tags, allowing you to output data in almost any format.

There are many tags within the Textbox and Chart elements, and you will have to experiment with most of them on your own. Here we explain one of the most important tags, SeriesItem. The SeriesItem tag is used for each item (bar, wedge, plot point, etc....) of a graph. Below is a typical value for a SeriesItem tag.

Item %SERIESITEMNUMBER, %SERIESNAME %ITEMVALUE_PopUp__DrillDown_&nbsp;<br />

As an item is processed, the text description for that item is generated using the value above as a template. Text from the template is copied to the description, while variables are replaced with the appropriate text.

For example, the descriptive text for a bar in a bar chart is generated this way:

How Descriptive Text for a Bar is Generated

This assumes we are using the value for SeriesItem that is shown above.

1. The first word--Item , with a space-- is copied to the description.

2. Next, the variable %SERIESITEMNUMBER is replaced with the number of the bar (first bar in a group is 1, second is 2, etc.).

3. A comma and space are copied from the template to the description.

4. The %SERIESNAME variable is replaced with the name of the series.

5. The space is copied.

6. %ITEMVALUE is replaced with the value of this item (i.e. the length of the bar)

7. The next two items, _PopUp_ and _DrillDown_ , are macros. These are names of tags within the Chart element. The value of these tags are substituted for _PopUp_ and _DrillDown_. In this example, let us assume that _PopUp_ is set to , %SERIESPOPUP.

8. If %SERIESPOPUP, which is the variable for the bar's PopUp text, is empty, then the _PopUp_ macro is replaced with nothing.

9. If there is a value for %SERIESPOPUP, then _PopUp_ is replaced with a comma, space, and the value of %SERIESPOPUP.

10. After the _PopUp_ and _DrillDown_ macros are processed then the &nbsp;<br /> is copied (this is HTML for a non-breaking space and a line break, which helps screen readers to pause between items).

This is a basic description of how to interact with the DLink.xml file. While other elements use different macros, they work basically the same way as described above.