Sheldon,
Thank you for the
clarification. So if my understanding is correct a dial is the axis
representation, and the needle would represent a serie. Your design assumes that
one dial can only have one needle, which is perfectly fine as a dial with
multiple needles (one axis with multiple series) doesn’t seem very useful. I
think however a nice addition would be to allow the user to choose if the dials
are superimposed like in your mockup or drawn next to each
other.
Regarding the mockup, I
was first confused by the scale, I believe only one is shown in the mockup. How
would the ones of the other dials appear? Or does that mean that they all share
the same dial scale when superimposed?
So here is an updated
proposal in conclusion of this:
Let’s subclass
ChartWithoutAxes and add a DialSeries interface :
interface DialChart
extends ChartWithoutAxes
{
void setDialsSuperImposition(boolean
areSuperImposed)
boolean getDialsSuperimposition();
}
interface DialSerie
extend Series
{
Dial
getDial();
void
setDial(Dial dial);
Needle getNeedle();
void setNeedle(Needle needle);
}
Other interfaces Dial,
Needle and DialRegion will be as defined by the schema in the spec. Just some
small amendments: FormatSpecifier and Label are not needed in Dial as they are
already defined in SeriesDefinition and Series. FormatSpecifier in DialRegion is
not needed either.
How does that
sound?
Thanks,
David
From:
birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sheldon Lee-Loy
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 4:34
PM
To: For developers on the
BIRT Charting project
Cc:
Christine Knight; Monika Mikolajczyk
Subject: RE: [birt-charting-dev] Chart
functionalspecifications update-MeterCharts
Lets first break
down the use cases for meter charts.
Meter chart with one dial with
one series
-----------------------------------------------------------
For a simple meter chart I
would have one dial that will contain a list of dial regions, a scale and a
needle. One series will also be associated with the dial. This
series will only contain one value that determines the position of the needle.
The value of the needle can only span over the scale defined for
this dial.
Meter chart with multiple dials
and multiple series
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this case we can logically
treat each dial as a separate meter chart. For example, lets say I have
three series. One series represents the value of Wind Speed, the second
series represents a value of Temperature and the third series represents the
value of Precipitation. Lets now treat these series individually. I
would define a dial for each of these series. Therefore, I would have a
dial that has a scale, a needle and a list of regions that is associated with
Wind Speed. I would have two other dials that are associated
withTemperator and Precipitation. Visually I could represent these three
series in three distinct meter charts. However, from the mockups I
provided it is possible to merge these three dials into one meter chart.
It is basically trying to visually represent three meter charts into one.
You can think of a dial as a
seperate chart. The proposal I presented is trying to visually represent
several dials in one plot area.
Thanks,
Sheldon
______________________________________
Sheldon
Lee-Loy
Problem Deterministic Group, IBM Toronto Lab
email:
sleeloy@xxxxxxxxxx
phone: 905.413.2610
"David
Michonneau" <dmichonneau@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent by:
birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
08/12/2005 09:47
AM
Please respond
to For developers on the BIRT Charting
project |
|
To |
"For developers on
the BIRT Charting project"
<birt-charting-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
|
cc |
Christine
Knight/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA, Monika
Mikolajczyk/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA |
Subject |
RE:
[birt-charting-dev] Chart functional specifications
update-MeterCharts |
|
Hi
Sheldon,
Regarding the
single/multiple dial charts, let me try to clarify things. Charts with Axes in
general, can possibly have multiple axes (an axis hold a scale and marker
line/ranges) and multiple series (dials), each being associated with an axis. If
we apply this to Dials, I would say a given axis with several series results in
a superimposition of the dials like shown in your mockup. However several axes
will result in several charts being drawn (sharing the legend), one chart for
each axis. Furthermore, each serie(Dial) can define several DialRegions (also
called DialRange?) to allow a given needle to go through different colors. I am
not sure if that was what you had in mind, in your design I got the impression
each Dial is an axis and a serie at the same time. But how can you have several
scales within the same chart?
Another question is how
many dials and/or axes do you want the builder to support? So far the builder
allows at most 2 axes and 2 series/axis for existing types.
Let’s first agree on
what we support here, before making a ChartWithoutAxes/ChartWithAxes decision.
In the meantime, I have merged the Dial spec with the latest version of the type
spec. There are some dial mockups for the two first screens of the new chart
builder, let us know your comments about them. Besides that, it includes minor
updates, not dial-related.
Thanks,
David
From:
birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Milind Padhye
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 9:19
PM
To: For developers on the
BIRT Charting project
Cc:
Christine Knight; Monika Mikolajczyk
Subject: RE: [birt-charting-dev] Chart
functional specifications update-MeterCharts
Sheldon,
David,
I am a little concerned about using a ChartWithAxis
mechanism directly for a Dial / Meter chart type. To be sure, this is something
that the underlying framework supports. However, as far as I can tell, the only
thing you are looking for is to use the Scale and MarkerRegion concept from the
axis. I think creating a ChartWithAxis has some implications as far as handling
of axis rendering etc. is performed in the library and needs to be investigated
before going down that route. E.g. do you want to see the Axis UI in the builder
for a Dial/Meter chart? I would think not. This will however happen if you use a
Chart with Axis.
Further, by creating a ChartWithAxis structure, you will
need to use / set a bunch of properties and will need to follow the structural
restrictions it imposes while not necessary applying to this chart type. E.g.
The actual data carrying series in the chart with axis will be residing under an
axis which itself resides under a separate axis. This looks like a very
convoluted structure for a dial chart (from an API standpoint).
I think this can be done by creating a type that extends
ChartWithoutAxis but has a collection of scales associated with it. To make it
possible to associate a MarkerRange, you could consider specifying the color
regions as statically defined for the ‘DialSeries’ at design time or
alternatively the Scale structure can be modified to support MarkerLines and
MarkerRanges. This would allow for maximum re-use of the existing structures
without placing unnecessary structural restrictions on the chart
type.
Just my 2 cents.
Thanks,
Milind
From:
birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sheldon Lee-Loy
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 10:43
AM
To: For developers on the
BIRT Charting project
Cc:
Christine Knight; Monika Mikolajczyk
Subject: RE: [birt-charting-dev] Chart
functional specifications update -MeterCharts
The
current design doesn't prevent you from creating separate charts with a single
dial. I believe one of the driving requirements for specifying several
dials within a meter chart is to fit in as much information as possible within
limited space. Usesablity wise this may not be good however in some cases
working in limited space may be necessary.
I guess a dial can
be modelled after an axis since a dial has a scale and marker regions are
associated with a dial. This seems to be the way to go.
Thanks,
Sheldon
______________________________________
Sheldon
Lee-Loy
Problem Deterministic Group, IBM Toronto Lab
email:
sleeloy@xxxxxxxxxx
phone: 905.413.2610
"David
Michonneau" <dmichonneau@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
08/10/2005 12:31
PM
Please respond
to For developers on the BIRT Charting
project |
|
To |
"For developers on the
BIRT Charting project"
<birt-charting-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
|
cc |
Christine
Knight/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA, Monika
Mikolajczyk/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA |
Subject |
RE: [birt-charting-dev]
Chart functional specifications update -
MeterCharts |
|
Hi
Sheldon,
Thank you for the
specifications of this dial type. I have a few questions:
In case of multiple
dials, did you consider as an alternative to show them next to each other, like
we do for pie charts? I think one of the advantages of this approach is to allow
multi-coloring of one given region, to act as a dashboard indicator. For
instance if the temperature is higher than 50, the region color could change to
red, then if the needle goes in the red, the user knows it requires specific
attention. It also minimizes the complexity of the chart graphics, as it’s
easier to read three separate dials than three superimposed dials (imagine if
your car speedometer, engine rotation counter, and gas tank indicator were all
in one same dial with three needles).
Regarding the
model, I thought DialRegion would in fact be DialSeries in the types.xsd. I also
assume this new type falls in the ChartWithoutAxes category. If we follow my
suggestion above, it seems Dial and DialRegion will fusion together. If we keep
the current design, maybe Dial should subclass ChartWithoutAxes instead of being
a component, or maybe the other way would be to make it a ChartWithAxes and
subclass the Axis interface with a DialAxis (Dial).
Thanks,
David
From:
birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:birt-charting-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sheldon Lee-Loy
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 10:47
PM
To: For developers on the
BIRT Charting project
Cc:
Christine Knight; Monika Mikolajczyk
Subject: [birt-charting-dev] Chart
functional specifications update - MeterCharts
Hi
All,
I updated the funtional
specification document that covers the meter/dial chart type. In this
document I have included schema updates and mockups of the chart builder.
Let me know if you have any concerns and questions.
Thanks,
Sheldon
______________________________________
Sheldon
Lee-Loy
Problem Deterministic Group, IBM Toronto Lab
email:
sleeloy@xxxxxxxxxx
phone: 905.413.2610_______________________________________________
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