Charts with Power WebPart ( Management-Eye-Catchers )

In this post I’ll give you some ideas how you can script charts in SharePoint with Power WebPart featuring Microsoft Chart Controls.

Visualizing a SharePoint list as a pie

Setup and Configuration:

1. 1. Download and install Microsoft Chart Controls (ensure that System.Web.DataVisualization.dll is either in the GAC or in the web app’s bin folder)
2. 2. Download and install Power WebPart (follow the instructions in the readme.txt)
3. 3. To use the Chart Controls in ASP.NET or SharePoint you have to modify the web.config:

Add this line to appSettings section:

<add key="ChartImageHandler" value="Storage=session;Timeout=20;" />

Add this line to the httpHandlers section:

<add path="ChartImg.axd" verb="GET,HEAD" type="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartHttpHandler, System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" validate="false" />

The Script

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Web.DataVisualization")

$chart = New-Object System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.Chart
$series = new-object System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.Series
$chartArea = New-Object System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartArea
$legend = New-Object System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.Legend

function createchildcontrols($controls) 
{	
	$data = $web.Lists["Chart"].Items.GetDataTable() 
	
	$chart.DataSource = $data
	$chart.Width=500

	$series.ChartType = [System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.SeriesChartType]::Pie
	$series.XValueMember ="Title"
	$series.YValueMembers ="Value"
	$series.ShadowOffset = 2
	$series.IsValueShownAsLabel = $true
	
	$chart.Series.Add($series)
	
	$chartArea.Area3DStyle.Enable3D = $true
	$chart.ChartAreas.Add($chartArea)
	
	$chart.Legends.Add($legend)

	$controls.Add($chart)
	
	$chart.DataBind()
	
	$series.Points.FindMaxByValue()["Exploded"] = $true
}

This just one example! The Chart Control is really mighty! Download the chart control examples from Microsoft to get an impression:

The limitation is your imagination!