ChartDirector 6.0 (Ruby Edition)

Soft Multi-Bar Chart




This example demonstrates a multi-bar chart with soft lighting effects for bars and gradient color for plot area background.

Soft lighting is a special shading effect that look like gradient coloring. In this example, soft lighting effect is applied to the bars with the light coming from the left direction.

See Soft Bar Shading for another example of soft lighting effect with the light coming from the left direction.

Source Code Listing

[Ruby On Rails Version - Controller] app/controllers/softmultibar_controller.rb
require("chartdirector")

class SoftmultibarController < ApplicationController

    def index()
        @title = "Soft Multi-Bar Chart"
        @ctrl_file = File.expand_path(__FILE__)
        @noOfCharts = 1
        render :template => "templates/chartview"
    end

    #
    # Render and deliver the chart
    #
    def getchart()
        # The data for the bar chart
        data0 = [100, 125, 245, 147, 67]
        data1 = [85, 156, 179, 211, 123]
        data2 = [97, 87, 56, 267, 157]
        labels = ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thur", "Fri"]

        # Create a XYChart object of size 540 x 375 pixels
        c = ChartDirector::XYChart.new(540, 375)

        # Add a title to the chart using 18pt Times Bold Italic font
        c.addTitle("Average Weekly Network Load", "timesbi.ttf", 18)

        # Set the plotarea at (50, 55) and of 440 x 280 pixels in size. Use a vertical gradient
        # color from light red (ffdddd) to dark red (880000) as background. Set border and grid
        # lines to white (ffffff).
        c.setPlotArea(50, 55, 440, 280, c.linearGradientColor(0, 55, 0, 335, 0xffdddd, 0x880000),
            -1, 0xffffff, 0xffffff)

        # Add a legend box at (50, 25) using horizontal layout. Use 10pt Arial Bold as font, with
        # transparent background.
        c.addLegend(50, 25, false, "arialbd.ttf", 10).setBackground(ChartDirector::Transparent)

        # Set the x axis labels
        c.xAxis().setLabels(labels)

        # Draw the ticks between label positions (instead of at label positions)
        c.xAxis().setTickOffset(0.5)

        # Set axis label style to 8pt Arial Bold
        c.xAxis().setLabelStyle("arialbd.ttf", 8)
        c.yAxis().setLabelStyle("arialbd.ttf", 8)

        # Set axis line width to 2 pixels
        c.xAxis().setWidth(2)
        c.yAxis().setWidth(2)

        # Add axis title
        c.yAxis().setTitle("Throughput (MBytes Per Hour)")

        # Add a multi-bar layer with 3 data sets and 4 pixels 3D depth
        layer = c.addBarLayer2(ChartDirector::Side, 4)
        layer.addDataSet(data0, 0xffff00, "Server #1")
        layer.addDataSet(data1, 0x00ff00, "Server #2")
        layer.addDataSet(data2, 0x9999ff, "Server #3")

        # Set bar border to transparent. Use soft lighting effect with light direction from top.
        layer.setBorderColor(ChartDirector::Transparent, ChartDirector::softLighting(
            ChartDirector::Top))

        # Configure the bars within a group to touch each others (no gap)
        layer.setBarGap(0.2, ChartDirector::TouchBar)

        # Output the chart
        send_data(c.makeChart2(ChartDirector::PNG), :type => "image/png", :disposition => "inline")

    end

end

[Ruby On Rails Version - View] app/views/templates/chartview.html.erb
<html>
<body style="margin:5px 0px 0px 5px">

<!-- Title -->
<div style="font-size:18pt; font-family:verdana; font-weight:bold">
    <%= @title %>
</div>
<hr style="border:solid 1px #000080" />

<!-- Source Code Listing Link -->
<div style="font-size:9pt; font-family:verdana; margin-bottom:1.5em">
    <%= link_to "Source Code Listing", 
        :controller => "cddemo", :action => "viewsource",
        :ctrl_file => @ctrl_file, :view_file => File.expand_path(__FILE__) %>
</div>

<!-- Create one or more IMG tags to display the demo chart(s) -->
<% 0.upto(@noOfCharts - 1) do |i| %>
    <img src="<%= url_for(:action => "getchart", :img => i) %>">
<% end %>

</body>
</html>

[Command Line Version] rubydemo/softmultibar.rb
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require("chartdirector")

# The data for the bar chart
data0 = [100, 125, 245, 147, 67]
data1 = [85, 156, 179, 211, 123]
data2 = [97, 87, 56, 267, 157]
labels = ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thur", "Fri"]

# Create a XYChart object of size 540 x 375 pixels
c = ChartDirector::XYChart.new(540, 375)

# Add a title to the chart using 18pt Times Bold Italic font
c.addTitle("Average Weekly Network Load", "timesbi.ttf", 18)

# Set the plotarea at (50, 55) and of 440 x 280 pixels in size. Use a vertical gradient color from
# light red (ffdddd) to dark red (880000) as background. Set border and grid lines to white
# (ffffff).
c.setPlotArea(50, 55, 440, 280, c.linearGradientColor(0, 55, 0, 335, 0xffdddd, 0x880000), -1,
    0xffffff, 0xffffff)

# Add a legend box at (50, 25) using horizontal layout. Use 10pt Arial Bold as font, with
# transparent background.
c.addLegend(50, 25, false, "arialbd.ttf", 10).setBackground(ChartDirector::Transparent)

# Set the x axis labels
c.xAxis().setLabels(labels)

# Draw the ticks between label positions (instead of at label positions)
c.xAxis().setTickOffset(0.5)

# Set axis label style to 8pt Arial Bold
c.xAxis().setLabelStyle("arialbd.ttf", 8)
c.yAxis().setLabelStyle("arialbd.ttf", 8)

# Set axis line width to 2 pixels
c.xAxis().setWidth(2)
c.yAxis().setWidth(2)

# Add axis title
c.yAxis().setTitle("Throughput (MBytes Per Hour)")

# Add a multi-bar layer with 3 data sets and 4 pixels 3D depth
layer = c.addBarLayer2(ChartDirector::Side, 4)
layer.addDataSet(data0, 0xffff00, "Server #1")
layer.addDataSet(data1, 0x00ff00, "Server #2")
layer.addDataSet(data2, 0x9999ff, "Server #3")

# Set bar border to transparent. Use soft lighting effect with light direction from top.
layer.setBorderColor(ChartDirector::Transparent, ChartDirector::softLighting(ChartDirector::Top))

# Configure the bars within a group to touch each others (no gap)
layer.setBarGap(0.2, ChartDirector::TouchBar)

# Output the chart
c.makeChart("softmultibar.png")