NAME

       Jifty::Plugin::Chart - A charting API for Jifty

SYNOPSIS

       In your config.yml:

         Plugins:
           - Chart: {}

       In your Mason templates:

         <% Jifty->web->chart(
             type   => 'Bar',
             width  => 400,
             height => 300,
             data   => [
                 [ '2004', '2005', '2006', '2007' ], # labels
                 [ 14,     15,     17,     22     ], # first data set
                 [ 22,     25,     20,     21     ], # second data set
             ],
         ) %>

DESCRIPTION

       CAUTION: This plugin is experimental. The API will change.

       This plugin provides a charting API that can be used by Jifty applications to build data
       visualizations without regard to the underlying rendering mechanism.

       As of this writing, the API is a barely veiled interface over Chart. However, I intend to
       expand the interface to apply to something like Maani's XML/SWF Charts or Imprise
       Javascript charts or even something like OpenLaszlo (or something Open Source and Perl if
       I can find or build such a thing in time).

INTERFACE

       By adding this method to the plugin configuration for your Jifty application, you will
       cause Jifty::Web to inherit a new method, "chart", which is the cornerstone of this API.

       This method is described in Jifty::Plugin::Chart::Web and an example is shown in the
       "SYNOPSIS" above.

CONFIGURATION

       Here is an example configuration for config.yml:

         Plugins:
           - Chart:
               DefaultRenderer: PlotKit
               PreloadRenderers:
                - XMLSWF
                - SimpleBars
                - App::Renderer::Custom

       The available options are:

       DefaultRenderer
           This is the name of the class to use as the default renderer.
           Jifty::Plugin::Chart::Renderer::Chart is the current default, but that could change in
           the future. It's recommended that you set this to your preference.

       PreloadRenderers
           This is a list of other render classes to load during initialization. If they are not
           loaded during initialization some renderers may not work correctly the first time they
           are run because they are not able to inform Jifty of the CSS or JS files they need
           before that part of the page is already rendered. If you use the "renderer" option of
           "chart" in Jifty::Plugin::Chart::Web, then you should make sure any value you use is
           set here in the configuration to make sure it works properly.

METHODS

   init
       Adds the "chart" in Jifty::Plugin::Chart::Web method to Jifty::Web.

   init_renderer
         my $renderer = $chart_plugin->init_renderer($renderer_class)

       This is a helper method that is used by the API to initialize the renderer class. This is
       handled automatically so you probably shouldn't use this.

SEE ALSO

       Jifty::Plugin, Jifty::Web, Jifty::Plugin::Chart::Renderer,
       Jifty::Plugin::Chart::Renderer::Chart, Jifty::Plugin::Chart::View

AUTHOR

       Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp "<andrew.hanenkamp@boomer.com>"

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright 2007 Boomer Consulting, Inc.

       This is free software and may be modified and redistributed under the same terms as Perl
       itself.