KavaChart AlaCarte Examples and Documentation

Welcome to KavaChart AlaCarte!

KavaChart AlaCarte includes all the tools you need to add Java© chart applets to your web pages. Thesepages provide example code and documentation to help you get started using KavaChart in your own pages.

It's useful to think of KavaChart applets as simple extensions to HTML. They generally don't have a significant user-interface. They're just designed to create a chart image based on parameters or URL data. Since there are many ways to obtain live data through a web server (e.g. JSP, ColdFusion, ASP.NET, PHP, Perl, etc.), it's easy to make your KavaChart applet definitions contain dynamic information. And when that information changes (titles, data, etc.) the chart will change to reflect the changes.

That's not to say these applets are trivial, though. Unlike simple news scrollers, or image rotation applets, or menu trees, KavaChart AlaCarte is industrial-strength code, in use at thousands of installations, for mission critical applications.

Indeed, KavaChart AlaCarte includes some very sophisticated chart types, and includes features like automated time-scales, live data feeds, JavaScript hyperlinks, zooming and scrolling. If you have a charting requirement, chances are KavaChart AlaCarte can meet and exceed your needs.

The KavaChart AlaCarte samples are organized into 4 sections to reflect the available applet collections:

Basic Applets
Time Series Applets
Finance Applets
Specialty Applets

All the applets share a core of functionality, covering data handling, hyperlinks, and general chart properties like color palettes and labeling.

Note: these demos all run in "demo mode" and display a notice at the bottom until you add the "appletKey" PARAM using your personal license key.

It's worth browsing through all the samples to see if there's a specialized chart that is uniquely suited for your needs. You can also browse KavaChart AlaCarte HTML documentation from these pages, or download the KavaChart AlaCarte User's Guide in PDF format. The PDF documentation can be printed for a handy desktop reference.

You can also use the KavaChart Chart Wizard to prototype you chart designs without becoming familiar with KavaChart's style properties.

The Basic Applet Collection

This collection includes the most used chart types, including most varieties of Bar, Pie, and Line charts.

The Basic collection demos include:

A variety of line and scatter plots, including regression charts, and applets that zoom and scroll through data.
A variety of bar and column charts, including stacked bars, clustered bars, stacked columns, clustered columns, and charts with bar-by-bar custom colors.
Area charts, including animated examples.
Combination charts, including bar-line and bar-area charts, with some hints on how best to use these charts.
Pie charts, in 2 and 3 dimensions, with a variety of color palettes and rendering styles.
Simple live data samples, that show you how an applet "watches" for changes in data by polling a file, cgi-bin, or other server data source.
JavaScript controlled samples, that show you how to use JavaScript to update your applet data or other parameters, without reloading the page. (Note: all AlaCarte applets can be controlled via JavaScript, not just the Basic Collection).

Like all AlaCarte applets, these charts support hyperlinking, live PARAM or URL data, and a wide range of style and data input features.

Feel free to experiment with these samples to see how applet PARAMS can modify chart appearance.

The Timeseries Applet Collection

KavaChart's Timeseries applet collection includes sophisticated timescale handling. Data that ranges over a period of time can be represented as areas, lines, strip charts, or bars, with clear, intuitive axis labelling that happens automatically.

Timeseries demos include:

Timeseries line and scatter charts, including animated strip charts, and a scrolling line timeseries.
Timeseries area charts, with automated time scales.
Date bar charts.

Finance Applet Collection

KavaChart's finance applets include some of the most popular chart types used to analyze financial data. For even more sophisticated charting and technical analysis, see the "kcfinance" package, part of the KavaChart Enterprise Edition.

The AlaCarte Finance applet collection includes:

Candlestick, OHLC, Stick charts, and applets arranged into traditional finance charting combinations.
Sector Maps to provide at-a-glance understanding of portfolio standing and market directions.

Specialty Applet Collection

KavaChart includes a range of applets that are used for specialized applications. While these charts aren't seen as often as, say, a bar chart or pie chart, they're extremely useful for certain situations.

The AlaCarte Specialty applet collection includes:

Bubble charts, including demos of KavaChart's hyperlinking capabilities - both HTML and javascript.
Gantt Charts help you schedule resources more efficiently.
Gauges and speedometers, great for dashboard applications and process monitoring.
Hi-Lo Bar and Column Charts.
Radar Charts, also called polar charts, kiviat diagrams, or spider charts.
Multi-Axis Charts, with axes on the left and right hand side for comparing data with multiple magnitudes.

KavaChart Chart Wizard

We've created a Chart Wizard to assist you in creating applet definitions.

If you're a KavaChart licensee with a current maintenance subscription, you can access a Java WebStart version of the Wizard that lets you save and recall chart definitions, and combine your own data sources into the wizard's user interface for the most realistic chart modelling possible.