Good lookin’ graphs from JPowered

Showing numerical data graphically is crucial whenever there are more than half-a-dozen data points – the human mind (at least of most of us) simply can’t grasp an array of values and see the distributions, trends and oddities.

Now if your Web application requires graphing there are some great products that make the conversion from raw data to graphical presentation pretty easy. But only a few produce output that looks as slick as today’s subject: Advanced Graph & Chart Collection from JPowered.com (see links below).

These utilities, available as both applets (client-side) and servlets (server-side), are written (as you might guess from the company’s name) in Java.

The collection provides line graphs, pie charts, vertical and horizontal bar graphs, stacked vertical and horizontal bar graphs, and area graphs. Moreover, all graphs can be rendered in 2-D or 3-D styles and anti-aliasing is supported to improve appearance.

And showing even more flexibility the applets and servlets can acquire data from HTML parameters, files, databases, scripts, and server side processes written in languages such as JSP, ASP, PHP, and PERL.

You can use JavaScript interaction to dynamically update the graphs as well as:

* Produce printer friendly labels.

* Modify fonts and colors.

* Include target and trend lines.

* Generate multiple Plots.

* Configure point symbols.

* Generate legends automatically from the data.

* Specify number formats for displayed values.

* Orient labels.

* Configure 3D effect depth.

* Display values and link to URLs on Mouse Over events.

* Include up to 10 free form images and 10 free form lines of text into a chart canvas.

These are some of the nicest looking graphs I have seen in Web applications – check out the demos. You can also test the applets and servlets that will display a trial-use message.

A license of just the applets for an organization or a person costs $200 while for an OEM or multiple organizations license (which allows you to run the applet from any site) costs $800. The pricing for using both applets and servlets versions is $400 and $1,600, respectively. All graph types are available individually for $50 for the single user/organization applet license and $100 for applet and servlet. The multiple organization license is $200 for applets and $400 for applets and servlets.

Source code for each graph type is also available for $500 for each applet or $1,000 for both applet and servlet.