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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
 Posted - 2006-04-27 : 09:46:19
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| I've been tasked with creating a Digital Dashboard. The initial brief was for a "proof of concept" which was fine. Before I really started, they have decided to implement a small pilot.I'm going to be using ASP.NET to do this which I have a basic knowledge of. The app will use Forms Authentication. My question is this. Can anyone recommend any of the fancy widgets and stuff that is used to make this all pretty? One of the things I will need to incorporate will be Graphs aka charts ideally ones that are similar to those available in Excel. I presume that the fancy widgets can do this sort of thing easily. I did actually try to use Excel but I got an authentication error which I presume was because I was using SQL Authentication when I pulled the data into Excel. Anyone else come across this?Not sure if it helps but the data itself will be static (for the pilot at least) as it will be dumped overnight into tables for reporting from. Further down the line it may be live.Thanks in advanceSteve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master
11752 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-27 : 10:23:02
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for excel like charts you can use office web components 11 or owc11.you just install that on you web server. you don't need office for it.licencing is coverd if you have one legal office copy... i think that was the case when we used id a year ago.Go with the flow & have fun! Else fight the flow  Blog thingie: [URL="http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp"] |
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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)
7020 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-27 : 10:53:14
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| Can't you do the graphs and charts in Reporting Services?Using Reporting Services would probably make it fairly trival to integrate into an ASP.NET application, since most of the funcionality is available via web service calls.At the very least, it should make development of a prototype a lot easier.CODO ERGO SUM |
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graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-27 : 14:48:50
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| We've been doing similar things at a client. We're just in the investigation state at this point. Some thoughts:- Business Scorecard Manager is interesting but freakishly difficult to configure correctly. I finally got it running properly after about 3 tries. Definitely do it in a virtual machine, backing up frequenty and document the steps. There's very little documentation or experts on the net to help. It looks like it could provide some neat functionality in terms of history, trending and drill-down. If I can ever make it work.- Reporting Services. The charts that ship with it are poor. Very little ability to click-through. We're looking at buying Dundas charts to add functionality. They have some neat dashboard specific report types.- Didn't really look at straight ASP.NET or integration with Office web components.===============================================Creating tomorrow's legacy systems today.One crisis at a time. |
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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-28 : 04:10:38
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| Thanks for this guys. Reporting Services is an option but at the moment as Graz suggested it won't really do some of the things that I'm trying to demonstrate without a disproportionate amount of work. Office Web components might also be feasible for demonstration at least. I know when this idea was originally mooted that click through was discussed as a possibility and again I'm not sure that OWC can provide that.I have looked at Dundas and various others and some of them seem to provide what I want but at the moment they are too expensive. It's more likely that I will be able to use them after the proof of concept/pilot is in full swingI must confess I hadn't heard of Business Scorecard Manager but I suspect it may be a good option - especially for the price! My only reservation is that we are largely Novell based. Windows is mostly restricted to SQL Server and IIS with a vague possibility of a biztalk server at some point. Knowing Microsoft this may not be sufficientThanks again guys, I'll post my final results here if anyone is interestedsteve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-28 : 04:49:44
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| I've had to abandon Business Scorecard Manager as it requires Windows 2003 server (and IIS 6) which I don't have access to. That will change if I get my new servers but for now it is not an option.These have some appeal [url]http://dotnetcharting.com/versionhistory.aspx[/url] and [url]http://www.softwarefx.co.uk/SFXNetProducts/cfxGauges/default.aspx [/url] Anyone ever come across them?steve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master
11752 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-28 : 09:04:37
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| what do you mean by click through?OWC can be client based or server based.Go with the flow & have fun! Else fight the flow Blog thingie: [URL="http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp"] |
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MichaelP
Jedi Yak
2489 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-28 : 13:41:55
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| I've used ChartFX for my .Net charting needs. That's what I use in my dashboard application. They have a "lite" version that is free, or at least it used to be. They have lots of neat charts, graphs, and gauges.http://www.chartfx.com/Michael<Yoda>Use the Search page you must. Find the answer you will. Cursors, path to the Dark Side they are. Avoid them, you must. Use Order By NewID() to get a random record you will.</Yoda>Opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of TeleVox Software, inc. All information is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights. |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-04-28 : 15:27:05
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| Darn charts, why can't management read a table (sorry, a "<TABLE>"), of figures?Better still, why aren't managers equipped with a SOAP interface?!Kristen |
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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-02 : 03:18:37
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quote:
what do you mean by click through?
I think what I mean is drilldown. i.e. you click on something and it takes you a level down into the data, so for example if you were looking at countrywide data it would take you down to regional data quote:
I've used ChartFX for my .Net charting needs.
Thanks for this, it looks as though they are a good candidate for my requirements. The mapping would be a nice bonus if it could cope with UK regions easilyquote:
why aren't managers equipped with a SOAP interface
It wouldn't clean up the garbage that comes out  steve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-02 : 04:15:06
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| "It wouldn't clean up the garbage that comes out"Have you tried the new "Prescott, Jowell and Clarke" garbage collection algorithm?!Kristen |
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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-02 : 05:27:23
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quote:
Have you tried the new "Prescott, Jowell and Clarke" garbage collection algorithm?!
There's a fix for that - Service Pack 2005 (codename Cameron) but I don't think it's been fully tested yet. It may still have bugs.steve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-02 : 06:03:43
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| That's a bugger! |
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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-03 : 03:11:08
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| Thanks to everyone who contributed. I am now looking at ChartFX and it seems (so far) to be exactly what I want and the price isn't too bad either!thankssteve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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pipodyer
Starting Member
1 Post |
Posted - 2006-05-17 : 13:37:06
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 .We just purchased Chart FX Gauges for both .NET and Java, and our Dashboard applications is caming along very nice.I have also heard there will be a new version for Chart FX Reporting Servicesd. I can't wait! |
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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-18 : 03:17:09
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| That's pretty cool, in fact you have given me some ideas I can now use in mine thankssteve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-18 : 04:26:53
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| "you have given me some ideas "The Wind Direction of the cooling fans in your server perhaps? [D)]Kristen |
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byrmol
Shed Building SQL Farmer
1591 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-18 : 04:35:15
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| Steve,Check out Developer Express ([url]www.devexpress.com[/url]) products. They have Reporting, Charts and Grids for both win forms and ASP.NET. Dirt cheap, great support and comes with source code for a little extra cash. I am using the win form suite and I am very impressed.DavidMIntelligent Design is NOT science.A front-end is something that tries to violate a back-end. |
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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
Posted - 2006-05-18 : 07:28:47
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OOoh Cheers David I'll take a lookKristen - I think most of the wind is coming from East Anglia  steve-----------Oh, so they have internet on computers now! |
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