We have just released Charting 2007.1 in both WebChart and WinChart editions as well as our new platform called SqlChart which is intended to work with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. This release brings all the eye candy you've come to expect from ComponentArt, but the question that may be floating in the clouds of our collective conscience is: Could it be that the only thing ComponentArt cares about is their look?
The answer is no.
After all, vanity is the quicksand of reason, to quote George Sand. And that's definitely not the direction where we are heading.
In this release we introduce some very useful features that will help chart developers to quickly arrange their data to be in line with the specs. Series that get their data from a database or a table can now be filtered, sorted and even split into sub-series at runtime to give the developer precise control about what exactly gets into the chart and how it is arranged. And the syntax is identical to SQL syntax so you don't have to worry about learning new notation that you'll never use elsewhere.
But the developer is not the only one who we have in mind when we think about the features we want to implement. Our future releases will bring more control to the end user of our charting product. We fully intend to make Charting an interactive user experience, and not just for vanity's sake in the form of pretty pictures and pop ups, but to bring useful features that our users desire the most. Having said that, are there any features you would like to see in our products? If so, post a comment, let us know what you crave the most. After all, it's not every day that you get an à la carte menu from a software company.
Other features we intend to introduce over the next couple of releases will make our product a lot smarter, easier to use and give the end user only the data they are looking for. But more details on that will leak out as time goes by.
For the time being you can enjoy some more eye-candy in the form of an introduction video for Charting 2007.1. "Vanity is my favourite sin", to quote Al Pacino. But hopefully it's not one of ours. So you can check out a preview of some of those handy new features in the video, and keep your eyes open for some very exciting things in future releases.
