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June 2003 Column Article

Embedding Graphics Server .NET Windows Form Chart Control into Internet Explorer

By Herry Lesmana

Graphics Server .NET includes two controls to use when programming: GSNetWinChart and GSNetWebChart. GSNetWebChart is the standard way to implement charts for ASP.NET web pages, while GSNetWinChart is the standard chart implementation for Windows Forms applications. Both GSNetWinChart and GSNetWebChart can be displayed in Internet Explorer (IE), similar to a lot of controls that you may have seen while browsing web pages. Multimedia players and java applets are among the very common controls you see in web pages. There are of course tradeoffs between using GSNetWinChart and GSNetWebChart in your web applications.

One of the advantages using GSNetWinChart embedded into IE is that your clients will now have more power and flexibility controlling their charts. This includes customizing their charts' properties by opening property pages and property window. Loading charts on the clients' machines will be faster using the GSNetWinChart control, rather than the GSNetWebChart control, since GSNetWinChart doesn't require downloading a new image file each time the chart changes. However, the clients' machines will require a one-time initial download of the GSNetWebChart control, and optionally the .NET framework if not already installed.

The downside is that your clients will need to download a new Graphics Server assembly every time there is a version change. Plus, each client viewing charts will need the .NET framework installed on their local machine. Since downloading and running the assembly take place over the Internet, security issues also arise. Each of your clients will be required to setup their .NET security configuration to allow downloading and running the assembly. It is very desirable that your company has its own security policy between your server and your clients, and you conform to this policy when setting up .NET security. The GSNetWebChart is favorable when considering security issues since it requires a minimum amount of security setup on the server, and no security setup on the client machines. But, your server would need to have the .NET framework and Graphics Server assembly installed. With GSNetWebChart, charts will be returned to your clients as images instead of controls. This gives up the power and flexibility to control the charts at run time. The following figures illustrate a simple application using GSNetWinChart:

* Figure 1 - a simple application using GSNetWinChart

* Figure 2 - context menu item by right clicking

* Figure 3 - chart property window

* Figure 4 - chart property pages

The sample source code:

  <html> <title> GSNetWinChart embedded in IE </title> <body> <object id="myChart" style="width: 700px; height: 400px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid" classid="Path/GSNetWin.dll#GraphicsServer.GSNet.Charting.GSNetWinChart" VIEWASTEXT> </object> </body> </html>

* The "Path/" in the object tag's classid can be an absolute path such as "http://myserverurl/" or a relative one for instance you can use "./" if you put GSNetWin.dll in the same directory as WinChart.html.

For more information about this sample application, and information on setting up the security to run the sample, go to Graphics Server knowledge base article GSKB304.

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