Reno

Saving Charts As Images To Email Them

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I've been using Fusion Charts (3.0.2) for awhile at work on a CF9 server and just paid to upgrade to the newest version of the XT suite. What I need to do now that I haven't done before is save charts as images and email them in reports.

 

I'm seeing fragments of things everywhere with no clear cut examples of exactly what to do on a CF server to save a graph as an image on the server (at render, not as the result of a user action), so it can be attached as an image to an HTML email. I understand that I'll probably need to set an image source for a graph image and then use <cfmailparam ... > to embed the image (done that a lot). Other than that I'm lost. I've spent about 4 hours google searching and looking though the manual trying to figure out.

 

Yesterday, I downloaded and tried jqPlot (free) and figured out how to save and email charts from CF in less than an hour (seriously - that's egg on your face there). With FusionCharts I'm totally lost (which is annoying, considering how much I paid :). I mean I bought this for a corporation, corporations love running CF servers on Intranets and corporate VIP's love getting reports and graphs in emails ... think on it).

 

Seriously, I just dropped a few grand... Can I get a sample app that does this or one nice step by step guide on exactly what to do pretty please? FusionCharts is a high priced corpart-ish product, so I don't think I'm being unreasonable here about wanting an easy straightforward example (and information) on something as basic to the needs of a corporation as being able to automatically send out graph report emails.

 

Thanks!

Edited by Reno

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Hi Reno,

 

Apologies. It hurts when customers are in pain.

 

I would try to help you as much as possible from my side.

 

But before that, I would just wish to know if you are using Flash charts or JavaScript charts.

 

What I can presently add here is:

 

1. You need to render the charts in the browser and then on render of the charts

2. export (save) the charts as image to a server side folder using API and here user interactivity is NOT required

 

To save the image at server, you need to have a server side export handler. I am afraid, as of now, we do not have a export handler for CF. But, for Flash charts we provide a J2EE export handler that you can always use. For JavaScript charts, you can make use of Batik library to do the same.

 

It would require sometime at our end to develop a sample. I would update you as soon as I am done.

 

Apologies again for the pain.

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I have a report that gets emailed daily. The report is called from CF Scheduler (not a browser window). I need that page when called by Scheduler to save the image in the CF Temp directory so that I can attach the image to an html email and send it.

What you're saying is, I have absolutely no hope of your product doing this on a CF server?

 

Again, I figured out how to do this with (the free) jQplot product that's out there (ex. https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/jqplot-users/mlif3cBmc8A).

 

Obviously, Fusion Charts is a much more complete and nicer looking product and I'd prefer to use it if at all possible. I'm not great fan of CF and I'd prefer not to be using it, but Corporations do love it for local Intranet server. Corporate executives and VP's *LOVE* getting reports in email and they want those reports to have graphs in them. I've also seen forum posts going back 4 years ago to 2009 asking for this feature. I mean you've got a major server platform that you've neglected adding a basic and high demand feature like this too for at least 4 years (really?).

 

I guess I need to see about getting a refund... I'm seriously about to look stupid explaining this product can't do what we needed and I may actually have to go with the cheaper looking free product to get the job done.

 

Ug.... oh well. Man this is irritating.

 

Maybe I'll go with Highcharts. Looks like they're on the ball: http://www.highcharts.com/component/content/article/2-news/52-serverside-generated-charts

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Hi Reno,

 

What ever suits you the best. We would be always happy that you are served, by us or not.

 

All products have their own plus-es and miss-es.

 

I can envisage that soon enough, managers will seek 3D charts with gradient, KPI gauges and lot more things that we have in our exclusive kitty.

 

There are ways to save FusionCharts JavaScrpt charts at server-side, without rendering in the browser - one of our friends have created this - http://fcimg.org/

 

We have also seen many among our customers implementing similar scenarios using WKHTML etc. in their private premises.

 

We appreciate your inputs.

 

Happy charting!

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FYI:

 

2009 (4 years ago) "We're working on it."

 

http://forum.fusionc...n-coldfusion-8/

 

Roadblock, laziness, lack of concern for your CF customers? What justifies not getting the job done and leaving CF customers out in the cold (the only server platform left out in the cold) for 4 years? Seriously, explain to me why for 4 years you've ignored CF customers?

 

BTW: Whatever this JSP "solution" is - it would be nice to see some kind of step by step guide or exactly what that post is in reference to. I mean for $3000 I expect to be spoon fed and not digging around the Internet for days trying to figure some crazy solution to a problem that should not exist.

 

Come on - MAN UP and get the job done guys!

Edited by Reno

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I'm using the trial version of FusionChartsXT and have the same problem. I haven't purchased your product yet but I basically need the same thing. I'm running a ColdFusion 9 server and have an automated email going out on a schedule. I need a graph product with trend areas where (through ColdFusion's Scheduler, not a browser window) FusionChart graphs can be saved into CF's temp directory and then inserted into an email as images). I haven't yet found another graph product that supports trend areas (not trend lines - colored in trend areas). However, that's a secondary concern next to simply being able to get images of the graphs in email messages.

 

If it's not possible to do at all, I'd love to know that for sure. If it is possible, I have not seen any step by step guide or anything beyond fragmented information on how to do it. One thing I'm having trouble with is it looks like everything in reference to this goes back to a CF .CFC component file designed to open a dialog in a web browser for saving an image. I need the graph to be generated and saved without a web browser being involved. I'm talking about CF Scheduler calling an HTML page designed to use savecontent and cfmail to email out an HTML report page.

 

If your product really can't do this at all please let me know. It's obviously the best looking graph engine I've seen and the only one I've yet found that supports trend area's which I really need (but most importantly I need graphs in email). I've seen some very confusion information referencing a JSP script to do this but I have never used JSP pages and from the information I've seen, I have no idea how to set this up.

 

Thanks You,

-Wes

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Hi Reno,

 

To add on to the above blog post information to "Save charts as Images without rendering in browser", please find the code to be executed with ColdFusion

 

Ref. Code:

 

<cfexecute name="C:\Program Files\wkhtmltopdf\wkhtmltoimage.exe" arguments="--javascript-delay 10000 http://docs.fusioncharts.com/charts/Code/MyFirstChart/ms-weekly-sales-no-animation.html savedimage.png" />

 

Hope this helps.

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