About These Examples

There are over 20 different examples in this book. If you are viewing the examples in book (PDF) form, each example takes two pages. In HTML form, each example will be on its own web page.

At the top of the left page of the book (or at the top of the web page) you will see the title of the example. Immediately below the title, you will see an image of a PopChart. In book form, it will be nothing more than an image. If you are viewing in HTML, though, you will be able to interact with the image (PopUp Text, Drill-down effects, etc).

Immediately below that, for most graphs, you will see a spreadsheet containing the data used in the example. This data is formatted specifically for use with the graph type in the example. It can be used to send data to the graph through screen-scraping (refer to "HTML Tables" in Chapter 6 in the PopChart Server User Guide).

Immediately below this you will see a table containing information about the example. Here is an explanation of what this information means:

Appearance File

This file is the PopChart appearance file (or project file, in the case of PopChart Xpress). This file is located in the examples/apfiles directory of your PopChart installation. Feel free to open it up in PopChart Xpress or PopChart Builder and copy it or change some of its settings.

PCXML File

This is the location of a PopChart XML (PCXML) file that contains the exact same data as you see in the spreadsheet. This file is located in the examples/data directory of your PopChart installation.

In the PDF version of the PopChart Examples book, this links to Appendix C, "Example PopChart XML Data," which contains the full text of each example PCXML Data file. In the HTML version of the PopChart Examples book, this links directly to the PCXML document.

For information about PopChart XML, refer to Chapter 10, "Using PopChart XML," in the PopChart Server User Guide.

XML Data File

This is a link to an XML Data file that can be used in conjuction with the appearance file to dynamically create this PopChart image (applies only to PopChart Server). This file is located in the examples/data directory of your PopChart installation.

In the PDF version of the PopChart Examples book, this links to Appendix A, "Example XML Data Files," which contains the full text of each example XML Data file. In the HTML version of the PopChart Examples book, this links directly to the XML document.

For information about XML Data files, refer to "XML Data Files" in Chapter 6 in the PopChart Server User Guide.

PCScript

This is a link to a file that contains PCScript commands that can be used in conjuction with the appearance file to dynamically create this PopChart image (applies only to PopChart Server). This file is located in the examples/command directory of your PopChart installation.

In the PDF version of the PopChart Examples book, this links to Appendix A, "Example XML Data Files," which contains the full text of each example XML Data file. In the HTML version of PopChart Examples, this links directly to the XML document.

Note: In the HTML version of the PopChart Examples, each PCScript command string starts with @_PCSCRIPT. This is not actually part of the PCScript command string, rather it instructs PopChart Server to interpret everything that follows as PCScript. Actually, to be technically accurate, there is no such thing as a PCScript command file. These files are server command files that contain only PCScript.

For information about PCScript, you should refer to Chapter 5, "PCScript," in the PopChart Server Reference manual.

CSV File

This is the location of a comma separated data file that contains the exact same data as you see in the spreadsheet. This file is located in the examples/data directory of your PopChart installation.

In the PDF version of the PopChart Examples book, this link will go nowhere, as the data is already available in the spreadsheet. In the HTML version, this will link directly to the file.

For information about XML Data files, refer to "Comma Separated Value Files" in Chapter 6 in the PopChart Server User Guide.

Tab-Delimited

This is the location of a tab-delimited data file that contains the exact same data as you see in the spreadsheet. This file is located in the examples/data directory of your PopChart installation.

In the PDF version of the PopChart Examples book, this link will go nowhere, as the data is already available in the spreadsheet. In the HTML version, this will link directly to the file.

For information about XML Data files, refer to "Tab-Delimited Data Files" in Chapter 6 in the PopChart Server User Guide.