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GeneralRe: Crystal reports Pin
minhpc_bk27-Apr-06 0:27
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GeneralRe: Crystal reports Pin
Dinuj Nath27-Apr-06 0:49
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Questionsession and application expires Pin
vijnathan26-Apr-06 7:35
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AnswerRe: session and application expires Pin
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QuestionDigital Dashboard Pin
boriz_spider26-Apr-06 6:28
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AnswerRe: Digital Dashboard Pin
Richard Parsons26-Apr-06 10:30
Richard Parsons26-Apr-06 10:30 
GeneralRe: Digital Dashboard Pin
boriz_spider27-Apr-06 6:34
boriz_spider27-Apr-06 6:34 
GeneralRe: Digital Dashboard Pin
Alexander Chiang27-Apr-06 11:34
Alexander Chiang27-Apr-06 11:34 
I am an employee at Dundas Software who would like to give you my opinion on our product and the others. First, I’d like to answer your question, “Is Dundas and DotNetCharting the only tools out there for this?” Dundas and DotNetCharting are not the only component vendors. There are many companies that offer this type of tool and each with varying degrees of features and quality. .Now I’d like to talk about what things, in my opinion, are important in DV components.

The things I look for in a DV component are the following:

1) Time Investment / developer productivity
2) Robust Databinding
3) Performance \ Rendering speed
4) Visual Appeal
5) Intangibles (Tech Support, new releases)

Time Investment / developer productivity

Dundas Charts is not the easiest charting tool to use due to its extensive object model; we provide so many features that its hard to keep it simple. However, we do provide productivity helpers such as:

1) A chart wizard that sets you up with a visually appealing, databound chart in a matter of minutes.
2) Chart templates to ensure a constant look and feel across all your applications
3) An extensive sample set that provides code for you to re-use
4) Additional classes such as, Six Sigma and High \ Low Pass Filters, from our support site (http://support.dundas.com) to expand your charting experiences
5) Full integration into Visual Studio 2003 and 2005; after installation, the product appears in the Visual Studio Toolbox

Robust Databinding

This is the most important aspect of a DV component; after all, this is what charts are about. I want to be able to connect easily to various data types provided by VS Studio, e.g SqlDataReader, DataSet, DataTable, etc. It should be as simple as defining the data and then bind it directly to the chart, specifying what the X values and Y (or multiple Y) values are. Dundas Charts offers so many ways to bind to data; in fact, anything that implements the IEnumerable interface can easily be bound to the Chart.

Performance \ Rendering Speed

This is critical when vast amounts of data need to be populated into a chart over the Internet. Who wants to wait more than 5 seconds for a web based dashboard to be displayed? Dundas Charts was able to render about 170 charts per second on an AMD 64bit machine. Of course the complexity of the chart (e.g. color gradation, chart type) will affect the performance. What’s great about Dundas Charts is its proprietary FastLine algorithm made specifically for rendering large amounts of data points (hundreds of thousands of data points!) at break neck speeds. In our newest release, Dundas Charts 5.5, we are introducing FastPoint, as well.

Visual Appeal

Although the products mentioned above all do a fairly good job in regards to appearance. I would strongly recommend checking out our online dashboard demos at http://www.dundas.com/Dashboards/Samples.aspx, as well as our othter online galleries that can be found there.

Intangibles

The two most important intangibles to look for in a product: technical support and new releases. I think we both agree that technical support is one of the most important intangibles and should be a huge factor in your decision. Dundas Software has the biggest technical support team out there. You can reach us by telephone and \ or email. We usually have a response for you right on the spot for most technical questions. The real advantage with our technical support staff is the presales help we offer. Before you even make a purchase, we’ll answer all your questions with regards to the product. If you feel you need a more in depth demonstration of our products, you can directly reach any of your tech support staff via telephone or email. If it’s a complex need, we can even write you a fully functioning sample demo.

New releases are important. It’s nice to know that the DV component that you purchase will always be updated with bug fixes and new releases. Dundas Charts releases about 3 new versions a year, jam packed with new features based on client requests and things we feel would help make the chart that much better. For example, in our Dundas Charts 5.5 release, which is coming out soon, we have a new scrolling and zooming feature for our ASP .NET version. Using AJAX, you can zoom in to certain areas of the chart and scroll the chart, all over the web!

Final Thoughts

There are a few DV component tools out there. It really comes down to which competitor fits your needs the most. My final recommendation is to download all those products and to judge the products for your self. As well, be sure to contact support so you can gauge the component provider’s commitment to helping you as a customer.


Alexander Chiang
Technical Evangelist
Dundas Software
QuestionOpen Popup window without using Javascript Pin
Ashutosh_Agarwal26-Apr-06 5:20
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QuestionRe: Open Popup window without using Javascript Pin
Ashutosh_Agarwal27-Apr-06 2:53
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Questiontreeview OnTreeNodePopulate Pin
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QuestionGeneral Search Problems! Pin
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Mike Ellison26-Apr-06 3:53
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QuestionHow can I format string to two digit decimal number Pin
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GeneralRe: How can I format string to two digit decimal number Pin
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Questionasp.net 2.0 send email Pin
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Vasudevan Deepak Kumar26-Apr-06 18:36
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QuestionDeploy a Web Application Pin
NICE TO MEET26-Apr-06 2:53
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