Introduction & Installation > What is SmartCharts?
 
SmartCharts is a set of Macromedia Flash (SWF) files that helps you to create eye-catching animated charts, graphs and KPIs. It makes full use of the fluid beauty of Macromedia Flash to create compact, interactive and visually-arresting charts. SmartCharts is shipped as an integral component of 3 of BCD's products:
  • WebSmart - for Web Application Development and Deployment
  • Clover - End User Web Reporting Solution
  • Nexus - Web Portal, Enterprise Content Manager and Dashboard/KPI solution

Imagine having a charting component that doesn’t need any installation, works with BCD's products - WebSmart, Clover and Nexus - and with any server-side scripting language, runs on a majority of browsers, is interactive, is completely scalable & flexible, and creates stunning animated charts, graphs, dashboards and KPIs. Imagine the essence of your presentations with life infused in them. SmartCharts helps you fulfill all your charting needs.

 
SmartCharts Benefits
  • No need for an Active-X or external Component:
    You do not need to install any external Active-X control or component to use SmartCharts. Simply upload the core SWF files to the server and configure them via XML data files. Installation instructions, including web server configuration, are included with WebSmart, Clover and Nexus documentation.
  • Animated Charts add to aesthetics of the site:
    The charts made by Active-X controls or components are static GIF or JPEG files. But, the charts made by SmartCharts are slick looking animated charts whose looks and additional properties can easily be customized by the data XML file.
  • Reduces Load on the Server:
    SmartCharts reduces the load on the server to quite an extent as the processing work is done on the client-side. The client just needs to have Macromedia Flash 6 player, which is very common nowadays. It is also shipped with the newer versions of the browsers.
  • Small Sized Component and therefore suitable for Low Bandwidth Sites:
    The file size of the component is very small and therefore it is very suitable for cases where the network supports a low bandwidth of data transmission.
  • Tight Integration With WebSmart, Clover and Nexus:
    WebSmart and Clover both incorporate SmartCharts into several templates and wizards, so developers and end-users alike can create charts without having to write a single line of code. Nexus included KPI portlets that utilitize SmartCharts powerful visual data representations.
  • Compatible with WebSmart PML and many other scripting languages:
    SmartCharts is compatible with many scripting languages such as WebSmart, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, Perl, CGI, CF etc. As the processing is done on the client-side, it does not matter which scripting language is passing the data to the component. The component can also be customized to take data from text files and so it can work on a static server too (where text files or XML files containing data can be updated frequently).
  • Client Side Dynamic Data Changing: You can manipulate SmartCharts with very few lines of client side scripts - i.e., you can build a completely new chart on the client side itself, without having to reload the page and the chart.
  • Many Additional features over other charts:
    SmartCharts offers you a hundreds of customization options like setting transparency, color themes, hotspots, hover captions etc. The best thing is that you can do these customizations by directly modifying values in XML text files.