chartx intermittent issue

[kbiach]

Hi,

We have been using chartfx internet server 5.5. Suddenly we are getting some intermittent problems with the display of charts (sometimes it displays sometimes only a red cross appears). Our servers are in a load balanced environment and we have already cross checked the security folder permissions (granted IUSR modify rights to the ChartFX folder), we have verified that the necessary web folder has been created correctly,and reregistered the chartfx dll.

The image we are using is .png and it has already been configured in the chartx configuration: I.E.6 to use .png

Can you help to provide other reasons why this is happening and resolution please?

Thanks!

Karen

[Frank]

There are some intrinsic problems using this older version of Chart FX in a Web Farm:

Chart FX 5.5 generates image file (png, jpeg) into a folder on the server in which it is running and sends this relative URL to the browser (Request1). The browser then comes back and retrieves this file from the server (Request 2). If Request 2 happens to be directed to a different server than Request 1 the file will not be found because it is in another server.

In order to avoid this problem you have several options:

1) Set the load balancing affinity to Session Affinity to ensure Request 2 goes to the same server as Request 1.

2) Use GetHtmlData to avoid temporary files altogether (see docs. for details and here:

http://support.softwarefx.com/ShowArticleSep.aspx?Type=KB&Product=CfxIE&Source=http://support.softwarefx.com/kb/143/4/048.htm?_r=1

)

3) Point both servers to the same physical temporary file folder (in one server, as a shared folder). You can do this simply by changing the CfxTemp virtual folder in your IIS manager.

More modern versions of Chart FX, such as Chart FX 7, integrate much better to Web Farm environments.

 

 

[kbiach]

Thanks Frank for your prompt response! I will try this out (more feasible for us is option 3) andI will let you know if it works!

[kbiach]

Hi Frank,

Just a follow up question, may I know what is the chartfx cfxtemp virtual folder for? im asking this because it seems our application is pointing to a different tmp folder where it generates the images..so if that is the case would it be safe i make the tmp folder a virtual folder and do the repointing there?

Thanks