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ZGDChart

    This is the README file for the ZGDChart product.

    This readme is best read as structured text [1]. On the Zope management screens, 
    go to the Control Panel, and view Products/ZGDChart and click on the README tab.

  Description

    A simple chart class which generates plots dynamically using data from DTML 
    or ZSQL. The output image format is PNG. For the SQL case, the chart plots 
    the first two columns of a SQL query result.

    This product uses Mike Steed's python extension to gdchart, 
    version 0.6. It is based on gdchart0.951, which in turn uses gd1.8.1.

    No source are included with 0.x releases, since there are no changes
    applied to the python extension. You can grab the sources from 
    "http://athani.pair.com/msteed/software/gdchart/index.html":http://athani.pair.com/msteed/software/gdchart/index.html

    The current version of gd is 1.8.1. It does not support 
    GIF creation due to the Unisys patent.

    Wrapper authored by Chui Tey "teyc@bigfoot.com":mailto:teyc@bigfoot.com .
    "hungjunglu@hotmail.com":mailto:hungjunglu@bigfoot.com

    (c) 1999,2000 "Cognoware Australia P/L":http://www.cognoware.com

    Software is provided without warranty.
	
    Version 0.4.2.b co-authored by Hung Jung Lu

    This product was created using mkproduct 0.6 and 
    Zope Simple Skeleton v0.2, written by Sebastian L&uuml;hnsdorf 
    (<a href="mailto:basti@beehive.de">basti@beehive.de</a>),

  Installation instructions

        1.      For Windows systems and for RedHat Linux 6.x, unzip the .tgz 
                file into your Zope directory. Restart Zope. For other Unix-flavor
                operating systems, you will need to generate your own gdchart.so
                shared library.

        2.      If you plan to use SQL for plot data, you will need appropriate 
                data adapters to retrieve data from your database.

        3.      A demonstration folder is provided for the SQL case. From the 
                management screen, click on the Import/Export tab and import
                gdchartdemo.zexp.  You will need the Gadfly Database Adapter
                for this demo to work. Gadfly DA comes with a standard Zope
                installation, so you should not have too many problems.

        4.      Eric Maryniak reports: The test.py scripts (you may want 
                to suggest using this to the user prior to usage), repeatedly gave 
                a 'gdImageJpeg' not found. It seemed, one must have lib-jpeg6b 
                installed (I had 6_a_ :-( !). 

                After this, it worked ok. To see which jpeg lib one has, 
                you can do: 

                rpm -q jpeg (result, e.g.: jpeg-6b-47) 

                I download this from a SuSE 6._4_ mirror (under gra1) which 
                installed (rpm -Fvh) ok under 6.3. 

                In 'makepy.linux' I had to change CPPFLAGS to: 

                CPPFLAGS = -I. -I/usr/include/python1.5 

  Localization

        Localization is provided through the ZBabel product.
        Dirk Datzert implemented this, and has provided a German translation.

  Version numbers

        The current version number is stored in version.txt

        The version numbers are kept in sync with Michael Steed's gdchart.pyd, and is no
        reflection of the maturity of this product. That being said, the product has 
        only been tested on Win95, Win98 and RedHat Linux 6.2, all under lightly loaded 
        conditions.

 Instructions for using SQL plot data

	1.	Create a database connection.

	2.	Create a ZSQLMethod to return a two-column data. The first 
                column should be text type, the second column should be numeric.
                (Notice that presently SQL plot data cannot support all available
                chart styles.)

	3.	Create a ZGDChart object.

	4.	Open the ZGDChart object, and under the Data Method tab, choose
                Z SQL Method. Click OK, and then select your Z SQL Method.

 Instructions for using DTML plot data

	1.	Create a ZGDChart object.

	2.	Open the ZGDChart object, and under the Data Method tab, choose
                DTML Method. Click OK, and edit your DTML method. For your
                convenience, a DTML method template is automatically created.
                Your DTML method has access to the REQUEST variable and
                all your Zope objects.
 
 Known issues

        1.      It is known that the Combo_HLC_Bar_3D format does not work. 
                This is due to a problem in the gdchart Python module.

        2.      Only simple chart styles are supported for SQL plot data.

 To do

        1.      Extend SQL plot data to include more chart styles.

        2.      Compile some how-tos for other platforms --
                Appreciate it if anyone has got this to work on NT or unices 
                to let me know  what it took to get this product going, and I will 
                compile some how-tos to go with the distribution.

        3.      Release the GLOBAL_INTERPRETER_LOCK in GDChart.pyd
                to achieve better performance in Zope

 Credits

        Bruce Verdeaime -- gdchart 
             "http://www.fred.net/brv/chart/", http://www.fred.net/brv/chart/     

        Michael Ray Steed --
	     gdchart.pyd 
              "http://athani.pair.com/msteed/software/gdchart/index.html":http://athani.pair.com/msteed/software/gdchart/index.html
 
 References

.. [1]  For more detail about how structured text 
        works, read \lib\python\StructuredText\StructuredText.py

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