Spline chart with Multiple Axes in APEX

I got a message a few days ago of somebody wanting a Spline chart with multiple Y-axes as the lines had different scaling.

Here's a way to get what you want.

1. Follow the wizards in APEX to create a normal line chart.
2. Standard in APEX you have Anychart 3.3, but that doesn't allow multiple Y-axes and a Spline chart, so you need a higher version of Anychart for that. APEX Evangelists made it easy to upgrade to Anychart 5 with the Anychart Integration kit for APEX.
3. Change the SELECT list of your serie to include a special alias e.g. "{n:Computer;t:Spline;y:ex}"
   That allows the integration kit to know that it needs to display the Spline type chart, with the name of Computer and it need to go on another Y-axe.
4. Run your chart again and that should give you the new chart.

On the picture is a Spline chart with different Y-axes for Video and Computer.

Optional;

If you want a nicer looking chart you might want to change your xml to Custom XML and add some specific Anychart 5 tags (e.g. for animation). The above example you find here with the source I used.

Important;

Apparently some people think I work for Anychart, which is not true. I work for APEX Evangelists (AE), a company 100% focussed on Oracle Application Express. APEX Evangelists offers training, development and consultancy services for APEX.
However it is true that I work(ed) closely with Anychart to create the Anychart integration kit for APEX and enhance it in time. APEX Evangelists is also the main partner of Anychart to deal with the APEX related questions and consultancy assignments (e.g. if you need help with creating your charts, maps, dashboards, ... or you want training in that area you can contact AE).

Improve your charts in APEX without coding

I just added another video to the Anychart integration kit for APEX website which shows you in three and a half minutes how to get nicer charts in APEX without having to change a single line of code in your application.

In the previous video we extended the charts in APEX with the new charts so they can both be used, but this time we want that all existing and future charts are using the new charts from the integration kit.

The advantage:

• If you have a lot of charts already created in your APEX application they will get replaced by the new charts without having to change anything. All your charts will look new.
  
• Another advantage is that in the wizards of APEX the new version will be shown directly.

To do this, we take the files of the integration kit (Anychart 5.1) and will overwrite the existing Anychart 3.3 files in APEX. You can see exactly how it works in the below video.



If you prefer to download the video and play in your favorite media player (e.g. QuickTime) you can do that here.

Video - How to install the Anychart integration kit for APEX

I just added a video to the Anychart integration kit for APEX website which shows you in five minutes how to install the kit.

In the video I don't "upgrade" the Flash charts of APEX, but instead I show how you can use both versions together. So you'll be able to use both the Anychart 3 charts you get out-of-the-box with APEX and the Anychart 5 charts you get with the integration kit.

I uploaded the video to YouTube, but the quality seems to have dropped quite a bit.



I recommend to look at the original video as the quality is a bit better. You can download the video and play in your favorite media player (e.g. QuickTime) in full screen.

New Anychart Integration Kit for APEX and website

We're happy to announce that a new version of the Anychart Integration Kit for APEX is available now.
This release works with Anychart 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 and it fixes some issues of previous releases.

As there was a lot of interest in the product, we decided to create a new website which has all information in one place. In the FAQ we explain how things work, there is an installation section and an explanation how to get support and lots more...


At regular times we offer Webinars (online training) about APEX and charts. The next one is already planned for next week! (see the Webinars section on the site)

As with the previous site, a lot of demos are available. The integration kit helps you to make nicer charts. It not only gives your old standard APEX charts a cleaner look and feel, but it also allows you to create other types of charts. A complete list of charts you find on the Anychart website.

Next to the charts we included a section for Maps, Gauges and Gantt charts. These sections we'll update regularly. We plan to offer more webinars about these charts as well as how to create interactive dashboards.

We also created a section to log Bugs and Enhancements for this integration kit. If you go to the Support section you'll see a link at the bottom. It allows you to log your own issue or to have a look at other known issues.

We hope you like this new release and the new site!

Have fun with it!

Anychart 5 integration kit for APEX

A few days ago we released our Anychart 5 integration kit for Oracle Application Express (APEX).

Background

APEX has the ability to create (flash) charts. They are based on an older version of Anychart, version 3.3. Although these charts are already nice, there are some problems with it. You can't do everything you want with it, you can't print for ex, in short they look fine but not great.
Anychart released a while ago Anychart 5 which not only looks a lot nicer, but it resolved the problems and it has a lot more possibilities and features! Below, on the left, a chart created in APEX by using one of the predefined examples and on the right, the chart in Anychart 5 format.

I hope the charts speak for themselves ;-)

Installation

You can install this integration kit in a couple of different ways. If you prefer to keep the original APEX installation intact, you can do that and copy the integration kit in another folder. That means you can use the Anychart 3.3 and Anychart 5 charts together (like on the site of us).
You can also overwrite the files that came with APEX (take a backup first!) and that should change all your charts (also existing ones) in Anychart 5 format.

In both cases you can still use the wizards in APEX to create the charts, but if you decided to not overwrite the files, you need to make a small change in the chart region to point to the right path where you installed your files. The integration kit was tested on APEX 3.x (0, 1) and database 10g, 11g and XE with both the http server and the Embedded PLSQL Gateway. However if you do find a problem, please let us now or write a mail to apex@anychart.com.

Under the hood

So what's happening? The Anychart 5 file format is in a very different format, so what we did is creating a translation file which converts the Anychart 3 xml into Anychart 5 xml. You'll see the 2DColumn.swf of the integration chart are really small, that's because only the translation is done there and then sent to the anychart.swf file in the format it recognizes.


Using the integration kit

You can keep using the wizards in APEX to create your chart. This integration kit is meant as a first step towards the full kit we are working on. All the current types of charts in APEX are already supported by this kit and more, like for ex the combined charts - like on the screenshot above-, but Anychart 5 can do a lot more. For the Dashboards and Gauges for ex, which are currently not yet a type in APEX, you would need to write some more code yourself.
The followup kit will also provide you with the possibility to create these types of charts (Dashboards, Gauges, Maps, Gantts) through a wizard or at least with writing as less code as possible. In the meanwhile we (Apex Evangelists) can provide you with consulting to create other types of charts.


Examples

A full set of examples can be found on this site. All types of charts are shown in the standard APEX format (without changing or making it nicer), in the middle (if you enable the checkbox) you'll find the exact same chart but using the integration kit (so no changes made there) and on the right you find the same chart but with a few changes that shows the potential of Anychart 5.
You can also view the source of the region, the chart and the series that are used.

Purchase

The integration kit comes with a trial version of the Anychart 5 .swf file. You can see it by the watermark. If you buy the full version from the Anychart website and replace the anychart.swf file that comes with the integration kit, the watermark will disappear.
The integration kit itself doesn't cost you any money, you only need to pay for the Anychart license. APEX users get a 15% discount by using the code: APEX15

Final thoughts

This integration kit came together by the partnership of Apex Evangelists and Anychart. I would like to thank the people at Anychart for their help in working on this.