VisualForte Servlet is a Java servlet conforming to the J2EE standard (Java 2 Enterprise Edition). It generates highly customizable, professional looking charts in real-time for your web sites and web applications.

Using VFML, an XML based language, simple charts with static or dynamic data can be defined in a few lines of XML. Multiple image formats and international languages are supported.

It can be installed on any J2EE application server or servlet container such as BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, Sun One, Macromedia JRun and Apache Tomcat. VisualForte does not contain platform dependent components. All leading hardware platforms are supported to provide flexible deployment option.

Rapid installation means deployment on a wide variety of server environments can be achieved within minutes.

Chart definitions

Charts are defined using VFML, an XML based language. VFML attributes can be supplied at run-time as URL parameters or ColdFusion variables.

Languages supported in charts

All languages supported by Unicode can be displayed. Encoding support for XML includes ASCII, Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1), UTF-8 and UTF-16. This allows text to be entered in native languages.

Data connectivity

Data can be specified; inside a VFML document, as URL parameters, using ColdFusion queries, or a combination of these.

Image formats generated

• PNG – The industry standard supported by all modern browsers
• JPEG
• BMP
• SVG – XML-based image description format

Note that the GIF format is not supported due to issues with patent. It has been replaced by the PNG format as Web standard.

Image formats accepted as resources

• PNG
• JPEG
• GIF

Graph types supported

• Line
• Spline
• Bar (2D/3D)
• Stacked Bar (2D/3D)
• Stacked Area
• Pie (2D/3D)
• Graph Combinations

Color support

All 32 bit colors (with transparency component) can be used by any chart components. Gradient colors are supported for some components.

Font support

Any system font or Java logical fonts can be used by all chart components.

Visual effects

• 3D Effect
• Anti-aliasing
• Semi-transparent colors (alpha blending)
• Bitmap backgrounds
• Gradient colors
• Borders

Open Standards Supported

J2EE, XML, Unicode, PNG, JPEG, SVG, HTTP 1.0/1.1

Platforms supported by rapid installation programs

Operating Systems: Windows, UNIX and Linux platforms
Application Servers: BEA WebLogic, Macromedia JRun, Apache Tomcat, Macromedia ColdFusion MX

Installation on other platform combinations may require to be performed manually.