New in VARCHART JGantt 2.3

From the end of July 2007, VARCHART JGantt will be available with new user-friendly functions: By means of intelligent connections between pieces of information, VARCHART JGantt 2.3 works in the background to automatically create missing group nodes and generates bars at each group level. Time scales can be optionally sub-divided into sections. In addition, the VARCHART JGantt components can be localised more easily.

Automatic generation of missing group nodes

With VARCHART JGantt 2.3 you can now automatically generate missing entities in the EntitySet for groups. This means that you can start with an empty group table and can be sure that you have completely captured the groups. You don’t need to write any code.

Nodes that have the same attribute characteristics are combined by means of grouping. Groups can be built up in several stages. For example, up-coming tasks can be bundled step-by-step according to employee and department.

For each grouping level an attribute is set which contains a group code. From the group code and from settings in the entitySet the groups are assembled.

	Group Code Level 1	Group Code Level 2
ID	Department	Employee	Activity
1	Department A	Employee 1	Activity 1
2	Department A	Employee 1	Activity 2
3	Department A	Employee 2	Activity 3
4	Department A	Employee 2	Activity 4
5	Department A	Employee 2	Activity 5
6	Department B	Employee 3	Activity 6
7	Department B	Employee 3	Activity 7
8	Department B	Employee 4	Activity 8
9	Department B	Employee 4	Activity 9
10	Department B	Employee 4	Activity 10

There can be no empty groups in this process. This requires an additional EntitySet for groups that contains an attribute with the grouping code for each grouping level.

	Group Code Level 1	Group Code Level 2
ID	Department	Employee
1	Department A
2	Department A	Employee 1
3	Department A	Employee 2
4	Department B
5	Department B	Employee 3
6	Department B	Employee 4

The order in which the groups are displayed depends upon the sorting criterion of the respective classification level.

Summary bars for groups

Bars can be displayed at every group level. Their temporal positions and duration are the automatic outcome of the grouped nodes. The data source is an attribute of the node entity filled with data values. The start and end dates of a group bar are established with the help of the minimum and maximum functions.

Several sections in the time scale

With VARCHART JGantt 2.3, the time scale can be sub-divided into different sections. The border between the sections can be moved interactively. Each section can be displayed in a different resolution. The appearance and time scale type (hour, shift, day, weekday, week, calendarweek, month, quarter, relative hours, relative days) can be freely selected for each section. VARCHART JGantt now contains the TimeScaleSectionType object type for this purpose.

Simplified localization

The insertion of your own text now makes the localisation of applications within VARCHART JGantt 2.3 even easier.

VARCHART JGantt shows supporting texts upon interaction in information windows and dialogs. This includes:

• Diagram control panel texts
• Text in the "Edit data" dialogue
• Information texts upon interaction in Gantt graph, e.g. when moving nodes or layers
• Context menu text in Gantt graphs
• Text upon interaction in the numerical scale for histograms
• Tooltip texts in the print preview
• Texts upon interaction in the time scale
• Texts in the information box with licensing information
• Texts in the font selection dialogue
• Information texts upon interaction in Gantt graphs

Until now, these JGantt texts were shown either in German, English or Chinese depending on the language specified in the operating system or local property session within the Java platform. Now, the texts can be added as ResourceBundles in the JGantt.jar file for the other languages.

Logos in the title lines

Last but not least, gif, jpg and png graphics can be placed on the left and right of the title in addition to text. This can be used, for example, to integrate a company logo into the chart.