Interactive Dundas Charts using AJAX

In version 5.5, Dundas Chart for ASP.NET establishes an industry precedent for interactive charting by heavily incorporating AJAX into its feature set. This unique implementation (the first and only one of its kind in the .NET charting marketplace) delivers lightweight yet powerful functionality for building interactive web applications. In this article, we will explore the advantages of AJAX, its importance within Dundas Chart, and how you can use AJAX to add interactive, web-based features to your chart.

What is AJAX?

AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) enables you to refresh part of a web page without having to send the entire page back to the server. The AJAX-style of development is used in high-profile websites such as Google, Flickr and Amazon, and has rapidly gained popularity within the ASP.NET development community because of its ability to deliver rich, fast-loading, user-friendly applications that meet the demands of today’s organizations.

Recognizing the importance of AJAX, Microsoft recently introduced the ATLAS project, an extension to ASP.NET 2.0 designed to simplify the implementation of AJAX functionality. In addition, Microsoft has already launched web sites of their own that incorporate AJAX technologies and provide end users with an enhanced, responsive user interface.

Why use AJAX?

Using AJAX for your charting needs has several distinct advantages over alternate development approaches:

  • Enhances user-experience by eliminating postbacks
  • Interactive content can be viewed in all commonly-used browsers (IE, Firefox, Netscape, Opera, etc.).
  • No installations are required on the client machine.
  • Easily handles all client-side interactive functionality by using clean, easy-to-use Chart events.
  • Allows the developer to create real-time charts that emulate a streaming approach without using an IFrame or other “hacks”.
  • Allows the developer to execute any Javascript on the client-side and update any client-side controls in your application without making round-trips to the server.
  • The .NET Framework does not need to be installed on the client machine.
  • No security settings need to be changed on the client machine.

AJAX in Dundas Chart

Dundas Chart for ASP.NET uses AJAX to engineer the following built-in features:

Additionally, events have been provided to build customized chart-related functionality. This allows you to update elements on the chart or the web page without having to refresh the entire page, giving you tremendous flexibility to:

Dundas has provided several interactive presentations to demonstrate these functionalities, which can be accessed by clicking here.

AJAX in the Future

Increasing adoption rates of AJAX are related to an ongoing paradigm shift in web development from traditional, action-based web sites to smarter, event-based applications with fewer limitations and greater corporate value. So while the current impact of AJAX is undeniable, most industry experts agree that AJAX will continue to rise in popularity and that its foothold on the web development community will only get stronger in the months to come. For Dundas Data Visualization and its flagship Charting product, the shift to AJAX technology represents a landmark achievement in visual data analysis over the web and introduces a whole new set of options for the developer to explore. We encourage you to download the new, AJAX-enabled Enterprise and Professional editions of Dundas Chart for ASP.NET.

Google, Amazon, Flickr and Microsoft are registered trademarks of their respective organizations in the United States and/or other countries.