embedding gadget in an application

[one_user]

Is it possible to drop a chart in an existing Windows Form? If yes, how? If no, any plans?

 

[marco.shaw]

See this thread:

http://community.softwarefx.com/forums/t/9037.aspx

[one_user]

Thanks for the pointer. I'm looking to do something a bit more hybrid. I could use ChartFX directly but in the end I'd wind up re-implementing much of the functionality that's in the PowerGadgets layer. If there's no way, that's kind of unfortunate. It doesn't seem like it should be that hard if for example out-chart would allow us to specify its container rather than creating one of its own (sort of like -group but more general).

[JuanC]

>> I'd wind up re-implementing much of the functionality that's in the PowerGadgets layer

Can you specify which of the functionality in the PowerGadgets layer you would need in your WinForms app?

>> It doesn't seem like it should be that hard if for example out-chart would allow us to specify its container

I am not sure this model would be friendly to work with if you are building a WinForms app in Visual Studio.

If you want to describe in detail what you are trying to do, feel free to send us an email so that we can discuss it offline. Send your email to support at powergadgets.com.

Regards,

JuanC

[one_user]

I don't have much detail as I'm just toying around with some thoughts right now. In general, I'm looking at powershell as a scripting/extension mechanism for my application. So I'm not looking for super-tight integration. Just good-enough to provide an escape valve for things that aren't in some other way supported out of the box. I've put in the hooks to associate scripts with my various UI extension points and execute them through a pipeline. One of the things that would be a natural is to enable the addition of new reports/views in my application. I or my users would be able to write a little bit of powershell that would gather the data, pipe it to out-chart and have it appear in the appropriate window. Could be in a dialog box sometimes. Could be in a tab as part of one of my views, etc. Everything's there except that when the script executes, the window pops open separately. There are probably some tricks I could use to go capture it but it would be much more natural to just pull it in.

 

As to what functionality I'd duplicate to do this myself, it's really a question of how much flexibility I want to offer. Since I want this as an extension mechanism, I want a lot of flexibility. Some extensions might want graphs, others might want gauges. Others might want both. Some might render entirely different kinds of interfaces. Some will have logic associated with clicking on parts of the graph, etc. Which is where powershell and power gadgets are interesting - I can offer all that without having to build a lot of plumbing myself. Except for this one little problem.

 

[marco.shaw]

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but gadgets like out-map allow you to save the output to a static image.  You lose the mouse-over effects though, and would lose any drill-down capabilites, if applicable.

[one_user]

True. But I want it all.

StackedTestCharts.zip