What's New
With the release of PopChart 4.0, Corda Technologies has taken interactive data visualization to a new level. It is hard to believe that with all of the great features such as Flash, SVG, PNG, GIF, and WBMP image output, descriptive text for 508 compliance, drill-down, pop-up and rollover and blazing speed that there is more to add. We have worked hard to create even more to die for features in this release.
New Features in 4.0 Release
Here is a list of some of the new features in PopChart 4.0.
- Web-based Administration Console provides improved reporting and simplifies administration of PopChart Server.
- UNIX® scripts for starting and stopping PopChart Server for those who don't want to use the Administration Console
- Support for GIF and PNG on UNIX systems via the Pure Java AWT
- You can now load appearance files and data from URLs.
- Support for PopChart XML, a new XML standard for describing appearance files and data.
- On-the-fly appearance file modifications.
- Importing data directly from databases.
- Importing data from CSV and database generated XML data files.
- Importing data from HTML tables on web pages (Screen-scraping).
- PopChart Font Converter makes it possible to use your own fonts.
- More fully integrated double-byte character support makes it easy to use international fonts.
- Anti-aliased GIF and PNG output with PopChart Server Pro and PopChart Server Enterprise.
- PDF and EPS output with PopChart Server Enterprise.
- JavaScript PopChart Embedder makes learning to use PopChart Server quick and easy.
- New and improved PopChart Builder interface, including a PopChart Wizard that will help you create an appearance file in under a minute.
- Candlestick, Radar, Pareto, Bubble, and Gauge graph types.
- Macros for customizing data labels and drill-down.
- Improved automatic scale adjustments.
- Logarithmic scales.
- Line graphs now can have symbols, data labels, drill-down, and PopUp text.
- Improved legend formatting options vastly improves how PopChart Server adjusts to large amounts of data, as well as allows you control over the number of columns in a legend.
- PopChart Notes provide yet another way to interactively annotate your graphs.
- PopCharts can embed GIF or JPEG images, or use them as the background.
- Rotated text boxes and data labels.
- Background fill colors can be gradients.
- Background colors for graph grid area, legends.
- PopChart Server Enterprise supports HTML Table output below your graphs.
- Improved security permits file and domain restriction.
- Create 508 compliant charts and graphs with all PopChart products.
- Color theme support.
- Be ready for Web Services and .Net with end-to-end XML support and a .Net component.
Experienced users might also want to note that there have been significant changes in the way PopChart Server 4.0 operates. For more information, refer to the section entitled "Migrating from a 3.x Version of PopChart Server" in Chapter 2.
New Features/Fixes in 4.0.1 Release
The 4.0.1 release contains several new features and bug fixes. Significant new features include:
- COM PopChart Embedder now supports importing data directly from an ODBC database (via setDBQuery()).
- JavaScript PopChart Embedder now supports image maps (for PopUp and Drilldown on GIF images).
- Better support for embedded JPEG images when saving in the latest PCXML format (see "Compatibility Between Versions" in Chapter 10). They no longer result in large appearance files or abnormally slow image generation time.
- Added a ZIndex to the many elements in PCXML, allowing them to be layered on the Z-Axis dynamically.
- Added ability to change the color of Pareto bars, line, and line symbols, as well as the line width.
For a list of all new features and bug fixes, refer to the release notes (the release_notes.txt file in the Corda40 directory).
New Features/Fixes in 4.0.3 Release
The 4.0.3 release contains several new features and bug fixes. Significant enhancements include:
- Added the PopChart.NET Web Server Control, which is described in Appendix B, "Using The PopChart Web Server Control." Also fully documented the .NET PopChart Embedder (refer to "ASP.NET").
- Added PHP (refer to "PHP") PopChart Embedder. Also included is a beta version of the C++ PopChart Embedder, which is undocumented, but will work with a Pro or Enterprise license.
- Added the makeFullRequest and maxRequestLength attributes to the PopChart Embedder. These attributes allows you to specify that the PopChart Embedder should embed a full image request instead of using PopChart Server's key cache. Essentially, this restores the functionality of the setUseCommPortNever() and setUseCommPortIfOverLength() methods in version 3.x.
- Increased the functionality of the PopChart installer. It now generates PopChart Builder and PopChart Server evaluation keys. It automatically registers the COM PopChart Embedder.
- The D-link that appears at the lower right hand corner of an image when you have enabled descriptive text output has been changed from an underlined and bracketed upper-case [D] to an underlined lower-case d. This is to be more consistent with industry standards.
The 4.0.3 release also contains many bug fixes. Significant bug fixes have been made in the following areas: GIF and JPEG image import, Administration Console security, data filtering, and the PopChart Builder interface. There have been many minor bug fixes.
There have also been several changes to the documentation and the installer. For a complete list of changes, refer to the release notes (the release_notes.txt file in the Corda40 directory).
