ProEssentials WinForms interfaces are used when creating stand-alone Desktop or Embedded EXEs to be distributed royalty-free and ran on an end-users machine. This VS2022 - VS2019 C# Charting Walk-through includes instructions for Net4.8 Framework VS2022 and VS2019. If you prefer Net60 Nuget: Click here for Net60 Nuget Charting or if you prefer Visual Basic: Click here for VB.NET Charting or for C# in an earlier VS: Click here for VS2015-VS2012
The WinForm interfaces support adapting to changes in the parent form's font and background color. They are designed so that the grid number text size (grid numbers are the grid line labels such as 70, 80, 90 along y axis) matches that of the other standard controls such as TextBox, Radio Button, and Labels. As long as you don't explicitly change the font and background color for the chart, you will be able to change the form's font size and backcolor and all other controls on the form will adapt to match. Note that the default form text size of 8 points is fairly small. You may want to increase it to 9 or 10 points depending on your needs. This feature results in a clean looking user interface where the charting control appears to be a true sibling of the other standard controls.
You will have to write a little code (see below) to develop your graphing solutions. In the end, you'll prefer our .NET (property, method, event) interface. 99% of your code will set simple properties.
1) Start Visual Studio.NET and create a new project targeting [C#] [Windows] [Desktop] and [WinForms .Net Framework]. Accept the default name of [WindowsFormsApp1]. Note, Do not select Windows Forms .NET (without the Framework) as the Framework is required and we recommend .Net 4.8 for this tutorial. We optionally have assemblies for Net60 (Windows) but these are installed via Nuget package via Package Manager and adjusting Package Source to [ Gigasoft (Local) ] or searching for "Gigasoft" if installing from Nuget.org.
2) When the new project opens, you will be presented the design view of "Form1.cs".
3) Installing WinForms interfaces into Visual Studio.NET
VS2022 Instructions
VS2019 Instructions
4) Double click the [Pego] tool within the toolbox. This places an instance of the Pego component within "Form1.cs".
Left click bottom-right corner of control and drag down-right to fill up client area of Form1. The adjacent image shows what you see.
This represents the default state of a ProEssentials Graph. The default state has one subset with four data points. In the course of constructing your own charts, you'll set the properties PeData.Subsets and PeData.Points which define the quantity of data your chart will hold. You'll then pass data via the PeData.Y[subset, point] two dimensional property array.
ProEssentials uses the terms Subsets and Points but you can think of these as Rows and Columns. Passing data is as simple as filling each Subset with Points worth of data.
To enable the chart to match the size of it's container, let us change the chart's Dock setting.
Left click the pego control within Form1 to give it the focus.
From the main menu select [View] and [Properties Window]
Within the [Properties Window], scroll and locate the Layout section and then the Dock item.
Modify the Dock setting by clicking the center section or 'Fill' mode.
5) We recommend setting the parent Form's versions of back color, font, etc properties as ProEssentials will use the parent form's settings to help facilitate a uniform look among sibling controls.
We also recommend coding your property settings as this creates a record for you and others as to what settings are being used. And you might be able to re-use this code in other areas for other charts.
If new to C#, the (Name) property is probably the most fundamental property as its name is reflected in all code. For example: pego1.PeData.Subsets = 1; is a line of code, and it shows how the (Name) property (pego1) starts the line.
6) Double click Form1's Title/Caption Bar to open the code view for "Form1.cs" with default Form1_Load event initialized.
The cursor will be within the Form1_Load code section, enter the following code into this section.
You can copy and paste, but hand-typing a few lines of this code will help familiarize yourself with the Gigasoft.ProEssentials namespace.
Note: adding the following using declaration at the top of "Form1.cs" will shorten enumeration syntax.
using Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums;
pego1.PeString.MainTitle = "Hello World";
pego1.PeString.SubTitle = "";
pego1.PeData.Subsets = 2; // Subsets = Rows //
pego1.PeData.Points = 6; // Points = Columns //
pego1.PeData.Y[0, 0] = 10; pego1.PeData.Y[0, 1] = 30;
pego1.PeData.Y[0, 2] = 20; pego1.PeData.Y[0, 3] = 40;
pego1.PeData.Y[0, 4] = 30; pego1.PeData.Y[0, 5] = 50;
pego1.PeData.Y[1, 0] = 15; pego1.PeData.Y[1, 1] = 63;
pego1.PeData.Y[1, 2] = 74; pego1.PeData.Y[1, 3] = 54;
pego1.PeData.Y[1, 4] = 25; pego1.PeData.Y[1, 5] = 34;
pego1.PeString.PointLabels[0] = "Jan";
pego1.PeString.PointLabels[1] = "Feb";
pego1.PeString.PointLabels[2] = "Mar";
pego1.PeString.PointLabels[3] = "Apr";
pego1.PeString.PointLabels[4] = "May";
pego1.PeString.PointLabels[5] = "June";
pego1.PeString.SubsetLabels[0] = "For .Net Framework";
pego1.PeString.SubsetLabels[1] = "or MFC, ActiveX, VCL";
pego1.PeString.YAxisLabel = "Simple Quality Rendering";
pego1.PeColor.SubsetColors[0] = Color.FromArgb(60, 0, 180, 0);
pego1.PeColor.SubsetColors[1] = Color.FromArgb(180, 0, 0, 130);
pego1.PeColor.BitmapGradientMode = false;
pego1.PeColor.QuickStyle = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.QuickStyle.LightShadow;
pego1.PeTable.Show = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.GraphPlusTable.Both;
pego1.PeData.Precision = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.DataPrecision.NoDecimals;
pego1.PeFont.Label.Bold = true;
pego1.PePlot.Method = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.GraphPlottingMethod.Bar;
pego1.PePlot.Option.GradientBars = 8;
pego1.PePlot.Option.BarGlassEffect = true;
pego1.PeLegend.Location = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.LegendLocation.Left;
pego1.PePlot.DataShadows = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.DataShadows.ThreeDimensional;
pego1.PeFont.FontSize = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.FontSize.Large;
pego1.PePlot.SubsetLineTypes[0] = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.LineType.MediumSolid;
pego1.PePlot.SubsetLineTypes[1] = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.LineType.MediumDash;
// This enables data hot spots, But we need to define code in the HotSpot event //
pego1.PeUserInterface.HotSpot.Data = true;
pego1.PeConfigure.RenderEngine = Gigasoft.ProEssentials.Enums.RenderEngine.Direct2D;
pego1.PeConfigure.PrepareImages = true;
pego1.PeConfigure.CacheBmp = true;
pego1.PeConfigure.AntiAliasGraphics = true;
pego1.PeConfigure.AntiAliasText = true;
// Call this at end of setting properties //
pego1.PeFunction.ReinitializeResetImage();
pego1.Refresh(); // call standard .NET Refresh method to force paint
Your project code should look similar to...
7) The code above enabled the DataHotSpot event, so we should place some appropriate code in the DataHotSpot event.
Left click the pego control within Form1 to give it the focus.
From the main menu select [View] and [Properties Window]
Within the [Properties Window], click the event icon.
Within the available events, double-click PeDataHotSpot
This opens the code view of "Form1.cs" with cursor within the pego1.PeDataHotSpot event handler.
Add the following code to the pego1.PeDataHotSpot event.
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Subset " + e.SubsetIndex.ToString() +
", Point " + e.PointIndex.ToString() + " with a value of " +
pego1.PeData.Y[e.SubsetIndex, e.PointIndex].ToString());
8) Save and run the project. Your project will show an image as follows. Move the mouse over a bar and click to trigger the DataHotSpot event.
This completes this walkthrough.
Please read the remaining sections within Chapter 2 and review the demo code and documentation that's installed with the eval/product.
Once installed, the demo program can be accessed via shortcut...
Start / ProEssentials v9 / PeDemo
Note that our main charting demo is replicated in WPF and Winform C#.NET, VB.NET, VC++ MFC, Delphi, Builder all accessible from where you installed ProEssentials. These are great for modifying an existing demo to test potential modifications before implementing within your applications.
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