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The Microsoft Chart Controls provide ASP.NET developers with an API and a Web control for creating and displaying charts in a web page. Behind the scenes, the Microsoft Chart Controls take the data to be plotted and dynamically generates an image. This image can be generated using one of three techniques: the Chart Web control can generate the image and save it to the web server’s file system in a specified location; the Chart control can generate the image and store it in memory, session, or elsewhere, and have that image served by a built-in HTTP Handler, ChartHttpHandler ; or the Chart control can send back the binary contents of the chart image directly to the browser. The chart image can be rendered using one of four image types: PNG , JPG , BMP , or EMF . And when rendering a JPG you can specify its compression level. Regardless of the image file type and the technique used to generate the image, the Chart Web control renders an <img> element whose src attribute references the image (or the image-producing HTTP Handler or ASP.NET page). When a browser requests a web page with a Chart control on it, it receives this <img> element as part of the page’s rendered markup and then makes a request to the URL specified in the src attribute (just like it does for any other image on a web page). The chart image file the browser requests either already exists in which case its contents are returned, or the image is dynamically-generated. Either way, the end result is that the browser is sent back the chart as an image file, which is displays. This article explores the three different techniques the Microsoft Chart Controls has at its disposal for generating chart images. We’ll look at how to use each option, enumerate the pros and cons, and discuss when to consider using one option over another. Read on to learn more! Read More >

A picture is worth a 1,000 words… This adage rings especially true when it comes to reporting. Charts summarize and illuminate patterns in data in a way that long tables of numbers simply cannot. Web developers have long searched for ways to express numerical data in a graphical format; until recently, doing so required the use of an open source or third-party charting or reporting package or some homegrown technique using HTML, GDI+, or some other technology. In September 2008 Microsoft released a free charting suite named Microsoft Chart Controls for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. The Microsoft Chart Controls are an encompassing set of charts for WinForms and ASP.NET applications. Despite being a first release, the Chart Controls suite offers a wide array of chart types and charting features. The Chart Controls offer all of the standard chart types – line charts, bar charts, pie charts, and so forth – as well as more specialized ones, like pyramid and bubble charts. The Chart Controls suite offers a comprehensive set of charting features, including support for multiple series, customizable legends, trend lines, and labels. And the Chart Controls API makes it easy to sort, search, filter, group, and export the chart data. Unfortunately, this first version of the Chart Controls has limited support for customizing the chart from the Designer. There are no wizards to guide you through customizing the chart’s look and feel and specifying its data source. Instead, you have to set the properties and bind the chart data yourself. While the Microsoft Chart Controls have some rough edges, their cost (free), number of chart types, and array of supported charting features make them an excellent choice for adding charts to an ASP.NET web application

CodePlex is Microsoft’s open source project community and provides a free hosting platform for open source projects created in .NET. Microsoft’s own ASP.NET team has its own CodePlex page – aspnet.CodePlex.com – where they give code previews for upcoming releases. There you’ll find the ASP.NET MVC 1.0 source code, a preview of the ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 Framework, and other future libraries, frameworks, and controls. One of the controls on the ASP.NET team’s CodePlex page that gets little press is the GeneratedImage control .

It’s easy to display an RTF file — that was embedded as a resource in a C# program — in a Windows Form RichTextControl. (more…) ShareThis