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Chart-OFC-0.12
River stage zero No dependents
++
/ Chart::OFC

NAME

Chart::OFC - Generate data files for use with Open Flash Chart

VERSION

version 0.12

SYNOPSIS

    use Chart::OFC;    # loads all the other classes

    my $set = Chart::OFC::Dataset->new( values => [ 1 .. 10 ] );
    my $pie = Chart::OFC::Pie->new(
        title   => 'Pie!',
        dataset => $set,
        labels  => [ 'a' .. 'j' ],
    );

    print $pie->as_ofc_data();

DESCRIPTION

NOTE: You probably want to use Chart::OFC2 instead, or maybe just use some client-side JS library and skip the flash entirely.

This class lets you generate data for the Open Flash Chart library. OFC produces very attractive charts, but it's data format is byzantine and hard to understand. This library lets you generate that data with a high level API.

OFC can display pie charts, lines and/or bars on a grid, and area charts on a grid.

If you haven't explored OFC yet, you might want to stop now and go the OFC home page at http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart/. There are many examples of what it can do with OFC there, and seeing them will help you understand exactly what kind of charts you want to generate with this library.

Also note that this library simply generates data for OFC. You still need to embed the OFC flash in something and feed it the data to actually make a chart. This library does not generate Flash or HTML or anything like that.

This library was tested with OFC 1.9.7, and follows the format defined for that version. The OFC zip file is included in this distribution's tarball, under the ofc directory.

Classes

The functionality for generating charts is split across a number of classes, each of which encapsulates one piece of a chart.

Datasets

Each data set represents one chunk of data to be displayed on your chart. There are a number of dataset subclasses for representing data in different formats (lines, bars, etc). You can also use the dataset base class, Chart::OFC::Dataset, when creating a pie chart.

The dataset classes provided are:

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset

    The base class for all datasets. It has no formatting, and can only be used with pie charts.

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::Bar

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::FadeBar

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::OutlinedBar

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::GlassBar

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::3DBar

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::SketchBar

    Formats your data as a set of bars. There are many different styles of bars.

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::Line

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::LineWithDots

    Formats your data as a line, with optional dots marking each value.

  • Chart::OFC::Dataset::Area

    Like a line with dots, but this dataset also fills in the area between the line and the X axis with a color.

Axes and Axis Labels

When you are creating a non-pie chart, you will want to create an X and Y axis for the chart. These are represented by the Chart::OFC::XAxis and Chart::OFC::YAxis classes.

These classes in turn can take a Chart::OFC::AxisLabel class to define the label for the entire label.

Grid Charts

A grid chart can contain any number of datasets, in any combination of bars and lines.

Pie Charts

A pie chart displays a single dataset, with each value as a pie slice.

Colors

Many attributes in different classes expect a color. Colors can be provided as an RGB hex string with a leading "#" symbol, or as color names. Names are translated into RGB by use of the Graphics::ColorNames module, using the "X" scheme. See that module's docs for more details.

Opacity

Several classes accept an opacity value for an attribute. This should be a value from 0 (completely transparent) to 100 (completely opaque).

ATTRIBUTES

This class has a number of attributes which may be passed to the new() method.

title

This is shown as the title of the chart.

This attribute is optional.

title_style

This should be a chunk of CSS specifying attributes that apply to text, such as "font-size", "color", etc.

This defaults to the string "font-size: 25px". Without a default specifying a sane size, the default size OFC uses seems to 1px or so.

tool_tip

This defines how tool tips are generated for data points. It uses a simple templating language. See http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart/gallery-tool-tip.php for details.

This attribute is optional.

bg_color

The background color for the chart and surrounding text.

This attribute is optional.

METHODS

All of the above named may be accessed as read-only accessors on an object.

This class also provide several additional methods.

as_ofc_data

Returns a textual representation of the chart suitable for delivering to OFC.

ROLES

This class does the Chart::OFC::Role::OFCDataLines role.

TODO

This distribution does not yet support all of the features of OFC.

There are a few items left to do, notably grid charts with 2 Y axes, and background images.

It would also be nice to generate embeddable Javascript for populating charts, since this lets you create a chart without making an additional server request for the data.

Patches are welcome.

DONATIONS

If you'd like to thank me for the work I've done on this module, please consider making a "donation" to me via PayPal. I spend a lot of free time creating free software, and would appreciate any support you'd care to offer.

Please note that I am not suggesting that you must do this in order for me to continue working on this particular software. I will continue to do so, inasmuch as I have in the past, for as long as it interests me.

Similarly, a donation made in this way will probably not make me work on this software much more, unless I get so many donations that I can consider working on free software full time, which seems unlikely at best.

To donate, log into PayPal and send money to autarch@urth.org or use the button on this page: http://www.urth.org/~autarch/fs-donation.html

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-chart-ofc@rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

AUTHOR

Dave Rolsky <autarch@urth.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is Copyright (c) 2014 by Dave Rolsky.

This is free software, licensed under:

  The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)