One of the most frequently asked questions our sales and support teams have been getting over the past year or two is if we are going to make a gauges control that is on par with the rest of our controls. Our answer has always been yes, but it is only now that we are able to let the cat out of the bag.
For the past few months we have been working on a WebGauge control for ASP.NET. Our goal with this control was simple: Create a control that has excellent server performance, is easy to use and is visually up to the high standard of ComponentArt's controls.
The server performance issue was handled by our innovative approach of layering multiple images to get the final gauge image. With this technique we are able to achieve rendering times of less than one tenth of a second (100 milliseconds) for most commonly used gauges.
The concept of themes plays a big part in making the control easy to use. Our first version of the control will come packaged with four themes. The idea behind this concept is that the user should be able to create a gauge in seconds by selecting the gauge geometry, setting the theme, and a value for the gauge. Of course everything is customizable in case you desire to fine tune the details. Currently available color themes have the following look:
Other features include:
- Circular, Semi-Circular, Quarter-Circular, Linear and Numeric gauges
- Subgauges, multiple scales, ranges and pointers within a gauge
- Full client-side API with the ability to auto-refresh on a given interval
- Design time wizard and property view that allow setting of most properties with visual feedback
On the other hand, pictures speak a thousand words, so perhaps it's best to take a look at some of our preliminary mock-ups and renderings:
The beta version of our WebGauge control should be available before Christmas, with the full release in January.