Charting PlugIns (or solutions)

[carlyle]

Hi Folks,

I'm trying to create graphs from a found set of records in FileMaker. I've been researching different plug ins and other options and I'm wondering if anyone has input on which ones work best. I've found 2 plug ins (xmcharts, and oAzium Charts from Waves in Motion) and one solution from within filemaker (ChartMaker by Brian Dunning). Anyone have reasons that they prefer one of these options over the others?

I'm hoping to find a way to create bar charts showing different series created from different sets of found data on the same chart (make any sense?) Here's my very superficial observations so far--please correct me if I'm way off base!!:

xmcharts--seems very powerful, but looks like it takes a while to learn. It probably has a way to do what I want, but it might take me a while to figure it out!

oAzium (Waves in Motion)--looks more user friendly, but the examples in my trial version make FIleMaker crash, so that doesn't seem very promising about its reliability (plus, I can't figure out how to make it work since I can't see any of hte examples in action)

ChartMaker--I'm very curious about this solution, but in the demo version it only shows charts made from data within one record. I need to create charts from a found set of records and I'm not sure this can do it...anyone have experience with this and know whether it's possible?

Thanks so much for any help or advice--I sure do appreciate it!

Carlyle

[RodinBangkok]

xmcharts is my choice hands down. Make sure you use their examples file(s) as a starting point, then spend a few hours playing with the specific type you want to use, and it will get much easier from there on out.

Rod

[stanley]

I use xmChart for a number of solutions, and while it does indeed have a bit of a learning curve to it, once you have a good look at the example files (and they've got examples for pretty much everything) then you'll realize it's not that tough, especially for something like a multi-field bar chart. There are very good examples included in their download. I'd recommend printing out the source and the chart for the one that fits your case, then look at how they connect. Scripting the construction of the source code is the trickiest bit, but if you print out the scripts and examine them, you'll discover that it's merely alot of work, rather than alot of difficult logic.

-Stanley