39.1 About Graphs and Graph Wizards

The Graph Wizard provides an easy way for you to add a wide variety of graphs to both paper-based and JSP-based web reports. Oracle Reports Builder uses the information you specify on each page of the wizard to create an XML definition that describes the graph and renders to resulting look-and-feel of the graph at runtime.

Table 39-1 details the new graphing functionality in Oracle Reports 11g Release 1 (11.1.1), along with the equivalent 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) functionality:

Table 39-1 1 1g Functionality vs. 10g Functionality

11g New Features and Enhancements	Equivalent 10g Functionality
New graph types: New funnel, enhanced pie and curved line graph types allow for more variety in graphing. For funnel graphs, use the Graph Wizard to choose the funnel graph style on the Style panel. For curved line graphs, use the steps in Section 4.9.8.2, "Adding a graph"to create a simple line graph, then add the following to your graph XML definition: <SeriesItems> <Series id="0" markerType="MT_CURVE_LINE"/> </SeriesItems>	N/A
Enhancements for existing graph types: Support for number formatting in the Graph Wizard, and plotting irregular time periods on the time-axis. Number formatting support in the Graph Wizard allows you to format the numbers in the graph, independent of the data model. For number formatting, use the Graph Wizard (Y Format panel > Format Axis Labels button > Number tab) to format Y-axis numbers. Support for irregular time period enables plotting the time data without restrictions. For more information, see Plotting Irregular Time Periods.	Restrictions on plotting time data.
Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) image support. SVG provides for high resolution and smaller file size in graph output. Graph image output scales up better without losing resolution.	Support for only PNG, JPG, and GIF output formats.
New Chart Styles: Support for new pre-defined styles in style panel of Graph Wizard.	Support for only a few chart styles.

While the Graph Wizard enables you to create and edit the attribute values and layout of a graph, there are additional attributes that are not exposed through the Graph Wizard. To customize your graph XML definition beyond the scope of the Graph Wizard, you can directly edit the XML in the graph's Graph Settings property (for paper-based reports), or in the Web Source view (for JSP-based Web reports). The full list of attributes available is defined in the DTD file, graph.dtd.

Note:

The graph.dtd is available in the following locations:

ORACLE_HOME\jlib\bigraphbean.jar
In Getting Started with Oracle Reports on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN): on the Oracle Reports page (http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/reports/index.html), click Getting Started to display the Getting Started with Oracle Reports home page. In the list of topic sections on the left, click Index. In the Collateral Type list, choose Documentation and click Search. In the list that is displayed, find Documented Graph DTD.

Usage notes

When you specify a graph title, subtitle, footnote, or axis title in the Graph Wizard, you can insert lexical references (to user parameters, system parameters, and columns) in the text that will display their value at runtime.
When you specify dates in your graphs, the date values may display in a different format in a graph than in other fields in your report output.
In prior releases, the Graph Wizard's Type panel included a 3DEffect check box to allow you to specify whether to display the graph with the appearance of depth. To implement this effect in the current release, you will need to edit your graph XML definition as shown in bold font in the following example for a bar graph:
```
<rw:graph id="CT_1" src="G_EMPNO" groups="ENAME" dataValues="SAL">
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<Graph version="3.2.0.22" depthAngle="50" depthradius="8" pieDepth="30" pieTilt="20"/>
...
-->
</rw:graph>
```
Reports built with previous versions of Oracle Reports containing Oracle Graphics 6i charts will continue to run if the Oracle Graphics 6i runtime is installed on the same computer in a separate ORACLE_HOME. However, this is not a supported configuration, and Oracle will not fix bugs that result from this configuration.

Primary Graph Types

For most graphing needs, the following primary graph types will provide the best means to represent data:

Bar graph
line graph
area graph
pie graph
funnel graph
combination graph

Secondary Graph Types

These are special usage or less common graphs that are associated with particular data types or ways to display unique cases of data:

scatter graph
bubble graph
radar graph
polar graph
pareto graph
stock graph
3-D graph
curved line graph

Access

To display the Graph Wizard for paper reports:

In the Paper Layout view, choose Insert > Graph.
In the Paper Layout view, right-click in the main area (canvas region) and choose Graph Wizard.

To display the Graph Wizard for JSP-based Web reports:

In the Web Source view, choose Insert > Graph.

Re-entrancy

To re-enter the Graph Wizard for an existing graph in paper reports:

In the Paper Layout view, click the graph.
To display the Graph Wizard in re-entrant mode, do either of the following:
- Right-click the graph, and choose Graph Wizard.
- Click the graph, then choose Edit > Settings.

To re-enter the Graph Wizard for an existing graph in JSP-based Web reports:

In the Web Source view, place your cursor anywhere between the <rw:graph> and </rw:graph> tags, then choose Edit > Settings.

Using the Graph Wizard

For help on the fields on any tab page of the wizard, click Help at the bottom of the tab page.